UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS  STUDIES 

IN 

LANGUAGE  AND  LITERATURE 

Vol.   II  February,  1916  No.  1 


Board  of  Editors 

George  T.   Flom  William  A.  Oldfather 

Stl'art  p.  Sherman 


pubushed  by  the  university  of  illinois 
Under  the  Auspices  of  the  Graduate  School 
Urbana 


Copyright,  1916 
By  the  University  of  Illinois 


THOMAS  WARTON 

A  BIOGRAPHICAL  AND  CRITICAL  STUDY 


BY 


CLARISSA  RINAKER 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS 
1916 


CONTENTS 

Page 

Chapter         I    Ancestry.     Early  Life.     Oxford c> 

Chapter       II     Early  Poetry,  Published  before  lyjy 24 

Chapter     III    Criticism :  The  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  of  Spenser. 

1754-1762    36 

Chapter      IV     .Academic    Life.      1747-1774 59 

Chapter        V    The  History  of  English  Poetry.    Volume  I,  1774.    The  Triumph 

of  Romance 79 

Chapter      VI    The    History    of    English    Poetry.      Volume    II,    1778.       The 

Revival    of    Learning 92 

Chapter    VII     The  History  of  English  Poetry.    Volume  III,  1781.    The  Dawn 

of  the  Great  Poetic  Age 104 

Chapter  VIII    Critical  Reception  of  the  History  of  English  Poetry 114 

Chapter      IX    The  Poetry  of  An  .Antiquary.     1777-1790 127 

Chapter        X    The    .Antiquary 144 

Chapter      XI    Last   Years.     1780-1790. IS4 

Chapter     XII     Conclusion    164 

APPENDIX     A     Warton    Genealogy 176 

APPENDIX     B    A  Bibliography  of  the  Sources  of  Warton's  History  of  Eng- 
lish   Poetry 177 

BIBLIOGRAPHY    235 


riiEFACE 

Tin-  purpost-  of  till-  lollowing  stiuly  is  to  estimate  tlu-  iiitriiisiu  and 
liistoriial  importaiiee  of  Thomas  Wartoii.  To  this  end  it  discusses  the 
relation  of  all  his  work— liis  poetry,  liis  eritieism.  his  history  of  English 
poetry,  his  various  antii|uarian  works — to  the  literary  movements  of  his 
day.  This  frequently  underrated  author  was  more  than  a  small  poet, 
worthy  eritic,  and  dahbler  in  literary  antiquities;  he  was  an  important 
eontrihutor  to  the  literary  reaction  in  the  eighteenth  century.  Largely 
becaus*'  of  his  enthusiastic  study  of  the  middle  ages,  he  was  able  to  sup- 
ply in  every  department  of  lit^-raturc  which  he  entered  an  important 
quality  previously  lacking.  To  poetry  he  added  a  new  theme  and  much 
picture.S(|ue  imagery,  and  he  furthered  the  return  to  nature  and  the  son- 
net revival.  In  criticism  his  study  of  the  past  produced  the  historical 
method  and  helped  greatly  to  enuincij^ate  literary  criticism  from  the 
tyraiuiN-  of  the  rides.  To  literary  history  he  contributed  a  fuller  study 
of  English  poetry  in  its  earlier  periods  than  had  previously  been  at- 
temi)ted.  and  he  showed  that  the  poetry  of  the  neglected  mediseval  period 
was  at  least  as  important  as  classical  literature  in  the  development  of 
modern  English  literature. 

To  the  main  facts  concerning  Warton's  life  and  writings,  as  they  are 
given  by  Sir  Sidney  Lee  in  the  Dictioiiarij  of  Xutionul  Biography,  it  has 
not  been  jiossible  to  nud<e  many  a<l(litions.  I  have,  however,  been  able  to 
make  use  of  si.\ty-two  uiii)ublislied  and  apparently  hitherto  unnoticed 
letters  in  the  British  Museum  and  in  the  Bodleian  and  the  Harvard 
College  Libraries,  and  a  collection  of  niiscelhnieous  notes  in  tlie  Win- 
chester College  Library.  I  have  also  referred  to  the  manuscripts  at 
Trinity  College  and  in  the  possession  of  the  descendants  of  the  Wartou 
family,  which  the  previous  biographer  mentions.  The  bibliography  of 
the  sources  of  the  nistor;/  of  Eiigluth  rortri/  ha.s  been  compiled  both  as 
an  evidence  of  Warton's  industry  and  erudition  and  as  an  interesting 
list  of  the  books  on  such  a  subject  available  to  a  scholar  of  that  period. 
In  preparing  it,  I  have  not  depended  upon  conjecture,  other  bibliogra- 
phies, or  library  catalogxies,  but  have  carefully  compared  hundreds  of 
the  references  in  the  history  with  the  originals  to  make  sure  of  finding 
the  books  and  editions  actually  useil.  1  have  previously  discussed  War- 
ton's  criticism  of  Sjienser  in  the  I'i(bUcations  of  the  Modern  Language 
Assocuifion.  March,  1915.  ami  Warton's  poetry  in  the  Sewance  Review, 

6 


April,  1915.    I  published  twenty-six  of  the  new  letters  with  notes  in  the 
Journal  of  English  and  Germanic  Philologi/,  January,  1915. 

In  the  pursuanee  of  this  study  I  have,  of  coxirse,  laid  myself  under 
obligations  to  many  other  students  of  the  eigliteenth  century  and  the  ro- 
mantic movement.  In  my  investigations  I  have  been  courteously  helped 
by  the  librarians  of  the  various  libraries  in  which  I  have  worked.  Spe- 
cial tlianks  are  due  ]\Iiss  Catherine  E.  Lee  for  cordial  permission  to  ex- 
amine the  Warton  manuscripts  in  her  possession;  Mr.  M.  H.  Green  for 
every  courtesy  in  his  power  to  offer  in  the  furtherance  of  my  investiga- 
tions at  Trinity  College,  Oxferd ;  Mr.  Herbert  Chitty  for  placing  at  my 
disposal  the  Warton  material  at  Winchester  College;  Miss  E.  J.  O'Meara 
for  bringing  to  my  attention  a  copy  of  a  rare  edition  of  Warton  "s  poems 
in  the  Yale  University  Library ;  ilr.  L.  M.  Buell  for  calling  to  my  notice 
tlie  Warton-Percy  letters  in  the  Harvard  College  Library ;  Miss  Jennie 
Craig  for  valuable  help  in  the  University  of  Illinois  Library ;  Mr.  D.  H. 
Bishop  for  information  concerning  Joseph  Wai'ton ;  and  Professor  H.  S. 
V.  Jones  for  helpful  suggestions  and  criticism.  Most  of  all,  however,  I 
am  indebted  to  Professor  S.  P.  Sherman,  at  whose  suggestion  this  work 
was  undertaken,  and  whose  wise  and  genial  counsel  has  directed  its  prog- 
ress. Professor  W.  A.  Oldfatlier  has  kindly  assisted  in  seeing  the  work 
tlirough  tlie  press.  C.  R. 

Urbana,  Illinois. 


CHAPTER   I 

Ancestry     Early  Life     Oxford 

Family  tradition  derived  the  Warton  family  from  a  very  ancient 
and  honourable  one,  the  Wartons  of  Warton  Hall,  Lancashire, 
through  a  collateral  branch  which  had  migrated  to  Beverley  Parks, 
Yorkshire,  where  the  then  head  of  the  family,  Michael  Warton,  was 
knighted  by  Charles  I,  during  the  Civil  Wars.'  With  the  defeat  of  the 
royalist  cause  the  family  estate  was  so  impoverished  by  heavy  fines  that 
they  were  unable  to  maintain  the  rank  of  gentry,  and  Laurence  Warton, 
second  brother  of  Sir  Michael,  removed  to  Redness  in  tlie  vicinity  of 
Sheffield.  His  second  son,  Francis,  who  probably  went  into  the  church 
and  migrated  to  the  south  of  England,  is  very  likely  the  same  Francis 
Warton  of  Breamore,  Hampshire,  who  was  the  great-grandfather  of 
Thomas  Warton, =  the  historian  of  English  poetry.  Certain  it  is  that 
Thomas  Warton 's  seal  bore  the  Warton  arms,^  'Or,  on  a  chevron  azure, 
a  martlet  between  two  pheons  of  the  first.'  Nothing  further  is  known 
of  Francis  Warton  except  that  he  destined  his  sou  Anthony  for  the 

'According  to  John  Warton,  the  laureate's  nephew,  who,  however,  gave  con- 
flicting information  to  the  biographers  of  his  uncle  and  father.  See  Mant's  Poetical 
Works  of  Thomas  Warton  with  .  .  .  Memoirs,  etc.,  2  vols.  London  1802,  vol.  I,  p.  ix, 

and  Wooll's  Biographical  Memoirs  of Joseph   Warton,  London   1806,  p.  2 

and  note. 

The  Lancashire  Wartons  seem  not  to  have  considered  the  Wartons  of  Beverley 
to  belong  to  their  family.  'Edward  B.  Dawson,  of  Aldcliffe  Hall,  Lancaster, 
descended  from  a  collateral  branch  of  the  Wartons  of  Warton  Hall,  Carn forth, 
in  a  letter  to  E.  R.  Wharton,  dated  Jan.  10,  1896,  says  that  he  never  heard  of  the 
Wartons  of  Beverly  being  at  Warton.  His  ancestors  were  living  at  Warton  Hall 
in  1725,  and  for  long  before,  as  their  records  extend  backwards  at  Warton  for  over 
375  years   ( — 1521).'     Bodleian  Library,  MSS.  Wharton,  14  f.  22b. 

On  the  other  hand  Richard  St.  George's  visitation  of  Yorkshire.  1612,  derives 
the  Wartons  of  Beverley  from  a  Christopher,  and  a  John,  "of  Warton."  J.  Foster : 
Visitation  of  Yorkshire,  1875,  P-  386,  quoted  in  MSS.  Wharton,  14  f.  11. 

-See  Appendix  A. 

'I  have  seen  several  impressions  of  it  upon  Warton's  letters,  and  the  new 
paneling  in  the  Chapel  at  Winchester  College  has  a  copy  of  it  as  Joseph  Warton's 
among  the  arms  of  the  masters  of  the  college. 

9 


10 


TU05IAS  WARTON  [10 


church,  Mini  sent  him,  in  16(J(),  when  lie  was  a  lad  of  sixteen  to  Magda- 
len College,  where  he  was  entered  as  a  'pleb.''  Later  he  beeanie  a 
•elerk."  took  th.-  usual  degrees,  received  a  number  of  church  prefer- 
ments, and  settled  in  the  livinp  of  Godalming,  in  Surrey."  Of  his  three 
sons,  the  two  ihlest  were  deaf  and  duiid).  and  one  of  them,  a  painter  of 
some  j>romise,  died  yoinig."  Tiie  tiiird,  Thomas,  we  may  presume  had 
some  slight  defect  of  sight  suttieient  to  give  point  and  sting  to  Amhursts 
sobriquet  of  'squinting  Tom  of  Maudlin,"  but  not  serious  enough  to 
hinder  his  progress  eitiier  at  Oxford  or  in  the  church.  It  is  perhaps  to 
this  unfortunate  inheritance  that  his  son's,  Thomas  Warton's,  slight 
impediment  of  speech  was  due." 

Thomas  Warton  the  elder  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  some  inde- 
pc-udeuee  (if  thought,  thougli  of  very  moderate  ability.  At  Oxford  he 
was  conspicuous  and  popular  for  his  Jacobite  sympathies,  being  the 
author  of  a  satirical  poem  on  George  I,  called  The  Hanover  Turnip,  and 
vers«'s  on  the  Chevalier's  picture."  The  extant  poetry  written  by  this 
Tiiomas  Warton  does  not  show  that  he  had  any  great  claim  to  the  poetry 
professorship  on  account  of  tlie  excellence  of  his  verse,  and  it  was  prob- 
ably his  political  bent  ratiier  than  his  literary  ability  that  led  to  his 
election  to  tiiat  office  in  1718  and  his  re-election  five  years  later  in  spite 
of  considerable  ojiposition.  llis  incompetence  as  a  professor  and  a  ser- 
mon whicli  111'  i)reacheil  against  the  government  were  the  subjects  of 
sarcastic  and  vigorous  exposure  and  attack  in  Auilnirst's  'fc  rrcc-Filius,"' 
but  his  reputation  seems  not  to  have  suffered  seriously  therefrom. 

Although  a  friend  of  Pope,  the  elder  Warton  was  not  altogether 
of  his  poetical  faith.     He   was  an  admiring  reader  and   imitator  of 

■•Foster,  .-//iii/iiii  Oxoiticnscs,  Early  Series,  1891.     IV,  p.  1577. 

'This  .Knthony  Warton  was  not  the  author  of  the  Refinement  of  Zion,  published 
in  1657.  ascribed  to  him  by  Wooll. 

•Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  i. 

■|.\nihiirstl  :  Tcrra-FUius:  or,  The  Secret  History  of  the  University  of 
Oxford:  ill  Sri'eral  Essays,  etc.     London  1726,  p.  48. 

•Johnson  likened  Warton's  manner  of  speech  to  the  gobble  of  a  turkey-cock, 
and  the  editor  of  the  Probationary  Odes  declared  that  when  Warton  was  about 
to  be  ejected  from  the  royal  presence  by  a  sturdy  beef-eater,  he  was  recognized 
in  time  to  avert  the  catastrophe  by  a  'certain  hasty  spasmodic  mumbling,  together 
with  two  or  three  prompt  quotations  from  \'irgil.'  (  Mant,  op.  cit.  p.  cvi) ,  Even  Daniel 
Prince,  the  Oxford  book-seller,  who  had  no  motive  for  ridicule,  testified  that  his 
organs  of  speech  were  so  defective  that  he  was  not  readily  understood  except  by 
those  who  were  familiar  with  his  manner  of  speaking.  (Nichols:  Literary 
.liieedotes  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  etc.    9  vols.  1812-15.     Ill,  p.  702.) 

^Terrae-Eilius:  or,  etc.    p.  49. 

'"Nos.  X.  XV.  XVI. 


11]  ANCESTRY  11 

Spenser  and  Jlilton,"  and  wrote  the  first  imitations  of  runic  poetry,  two 
poetical  versions  of  Latin  translations  qnoted  by  Sir  William  Temple 
from  the  song  of  Regnor  Ladborg,  a  northern  king.^-  These  odes  are 
much  more  poetical  than  the  feeble  Spenserian  imitation.  Philander,  an 
Imitation  of  Spencer,  occasioned  hij  the  death  of  Mr.  M'illiain  Levim, 
of  M.  C.  College,  O.ron.  Nov.  1706,^^  which  is  significant  only  for  its 
early  date,  though  both  attempts  are  important  as  showing  one  of  the 
sources  of  the  romantic  tastes  of  his  more  gifted  sons.  The  poems  of 
Tliomas  Warton  conii)osed  a  small  voliune  published  by  his  sons'''  in 
1748  in  order  to  pay  the  small  debts  left  by  their  fatlier,  of  whom 
both  seem  to  have  been  extremely  proud.  The  runic  odes,  which  thus 
appeared  a  dozen  years  before  Gray's'"'  and  Percy's'"  northern  poetry, 
nuist  have  fnruislied  tliem  witli  some  suggestion  for  expressing  poetically 
the  interest  in  northern  mythology  so  keenly  aroused  by  Mallet's  Intro- 
duction a  I'Histoire  de  la  Dannemarc.'' 

It  is  impossible  to  say  when  the  elder  Warton 's  poems  were  writ- 
ten, perhaps  after  he  had  retired  from  the  poetry  professorship — he 
had  some  years  jireviously  gone  to  reside  regularly  at  his  vicarage  at 
Basingstoke — and  had  witlidrawn  still  more  from  Oxford  .society;  they 
were  the  parerga  of  a  life  busy  with  the  successive  vicarages  of  Fram- 
field,  Woking  and  Cobham,  which  he  held  in  addition  to  his  living  at 
Basingstoke,  and  with  tlie  Basingstoke  grammar  school,  of  which  he  was 
master.  His  sons  did  not  even  know  of  the  existence  of  his  poems  until 
they  found  them  among  his  papers  after  his  death  and  after  both  sons 
had  given  evidence  that  they  had  already  come  into  their  real  poetical 
patrimony. 

Of  Elizabeth  Richardson,  the  mother  of  the  Wartons,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  discover  more  than  tliat  she  was  the  second  daughter  of  Josepli 
Richardson,  rector  of  Dunsfold,  Surrey,  who  was  also  a  younger  son  of 

"Thomas  Warton  the  younger  relates  an  anecdote  to  show  that  his  father  was 
the  means  of  calling  Pope's  attention  to  Milton's  Minor  Poems,  with  which  he  was 
wholly  unfamiliar,  and  that  he  thus  led  to  the  sprinkling  of  phrases  from  Milton 
in  the  Eloisa  to  Abelard.  See  his  edition  of  Milton's  Poems  upon  Scferal  Occasions. 
2nd  ed.  London,  1791.  preface  p.  x. 

'-Temple's  Works,  ed,  1720.  I,  p.  216. 

'2.\  manuscript  copy  of  this  poem,  probably  the  original  manuscript,  dated  at 
Mag.  Coll.  Oxon,  Sept.  29,  1706,  is  in  an  uncatalogued  manuscript  in  Winchester 
College  Library. 

'^Joseph  Warton's  name  alone  appears  on  the  title-page,  but  Thomas,  who  was 
yet  an  undergraduate  at  Trinity,  was  consulted.     Wooll,  Op.  cit.  pp.  214-215. 

'■'See  Gray's  Jl'orks,  ed.  Gosse,  I,  p.  60,  and  Walpole's  Letters,  ed.  Toynbee,  V. 
p.  55  and  VII,  p.  175. 

'*See  Phelps's  English  Romantic  Movement,  Boston  1893,  P-  142. 

'"Published  in.  1755,  and  translated  by  Percy  in  1770. 


12  THOMAS  \V A KTON  [12 

a  Yiirksliire  family  of  some  means  and  education,  the  Richardsons  of 
North  Bicrley,  several  members  of  which  attained  some  distinction  in 
the  church.    Mrs.  Warton  died  at  Winchester  in  1762.'* 

It  was  at  the  vicarage  at  Basingstoke,  the  ninth  of  January,  1728. 
the  year  that  his  father's  occupancy  of  the  poetry  profcssorsiiii)  termi- 
nated, that  Thonuis  Warton  tiie  younger,  the  poet  and  Oxford  don,  the 
critic  and  historian  of  Engli.sh  poetry,  was  born'"  in  a  home  comfortable, 
but  ncithir  luxurious  nor  fa.shioiiable,  where  there  were  refinement  and 
iutcllectual  gifts  above  the  average.  His  brother  Joseph,  the  master  of 
Winchester  College,  to  whom  he  was  singularly  attached  throughout  his 
life,  and  his  sister  Jane  were  both  several  years  older  than  Tliomas. 

As  a  child  Thomas  Warton  sliowed  many  signs  of  precocity — a 
fondness  for  study,  a  passion  for  reading,  and  an  early  bent  to  poetry. 
He  was  no  doubt  greatly  encouraged  in  these  pursuits  by  his  father, 
certainly  a  man  of  ready  sympathy,  who,  without  in  any  way  losing 
the  resjjcct  of  his  sons,  made  himself  their  close  friend  and  confidant.-" 
He  hail  naturally  assmned  the  task  of  their  education,  and  Thomas,  at 
least,  had  no  other  master  until  he  went  up  to  Oxford,  a  lad  of  sixteen. 
His  education  was,  of  course,  largely  classical,  and  the  elder  Warton 
was  able  to  communicate  to  his  sons  not  only  a  substantial  Latin  style, 
but  a  genuine  enthusiasm  for  classical  studies  which  neitlier  of  tliem 
ever  lost.  It  is  possible  that  Thomas  was  more  fortunate  than  otherwise 
in  remaining  so  long  under  his  father's  instruction;  Joseph,  writing  to 
his  father  from  Winchester  School,  expressed  the  fear  that  the  Latin 
style  of  composition  which  was  there  permitted  to  be  used  would  not 
meet  with  his  father's  approval.-' 

No  doubt  a  very  valuable  part  of  Thomas  Warton 's  early  education 
consisted  in  browsing  in  his  father's  library,  which  must  have  been 
a  fairly  well-stocked  one,  and  jirobably  contained  more  curious  old 
books  than  were  usually  included  in  the  libraries  of  country  clergymen. 
Spenser  nuist  have  been  read  early  and  often  to  have  gained  so  firm  a 
hold  upon  Warton 's  affections,  and  probably  other  early  poets,  perhaps 
even  a  few  romances.  Certainly  Milton  was  a  favourite ;  perhaps  the 
early  edition  of  the  Poctns  on  Several  Occasions,"  or  Fenton's  edition,-^ 

".Anderson's  British  Pods,  London  1795,  vol.  XI,  p.  1053. 

"'January  the  gth,  1727-8,  Thomas,  the  soune  of  Mr.  Thomas  Warton,  Vicar, 
by  Elizabeth  his  wife  was  borne,  and  baptized  the  2Sth  of  the  same  month  by 
Mr.  Hoylc.  Curate.'  Basingstoke  Parish  Register.  Quoted  from  Baigent  and 
.Millard's  History  of  Basingstoke,  1889,  p.  649. 

=»\Vooll,  Op.  cit.  p.  10. 

■^Ibid.  p.  g. 

-'1673.  In  A  Catalogue  of  books,  (being  the  libraries  of  ...  .  Thomas 
Warton.  .  .  and  others)  to  be  sold  by  Thos.  Payne,  London.  iSoi,  this  volume  is 
listed  with  the  note,  'MS.  notes  by  T.  W.' 

"1729.    Ibid. 


13]  EARLY  LIFE  13 

both  full  of  mainiscript  notes"*  in  Wartoivs  crabbed  hand,  were  part 
of  the  father's  library  which  passed  into  the  son's  hands.  Fenton's 
edition,  at  least,  is  known  to  have  belonged  to  Warton  very  soon  after 
he  had  gone  to  Oxford.-'  As  an  evidence  of  the  strength  of  the  boy's 
passion  for  reading  it  was  related  of  him  that  he  used  to  withdraw  with 
his  books  from  the  family  group  at  the  fire-side,  even  in  the  excessively 
cold  winter  of  1739  and  1740^he  was  then  but  eleven  years  old — in 
order  to  devote  himself  uninterruptedly  to  his  reading.-' 

Warton 's  first  poetical  attempt  was  in  the  nature  of  a  voluntary 
school  exercise,  a  translation  from  Martial,  On  Leander's  swimming 
over  the  Hellespont  to  Hero,  which  he  sent  in  a  letter  to  his  sister. 
Fortunately  this  evidence  of  the  precocity  of  a  boy  of  nine  was  pre- 
served, though  it  is  probably  no  great  misfortune  that  other  early  poetical 
attempts  have  been  lost.  The  lines,  not  bad  for  a  child,  are  in  the 
prevailing  stilted  diction  of  the  day, — 

When  bold  Leander  sought  his  distant  Fair, 

(Nor  could  the  sea  a  braver  burthen  bear) 

Thus  to  the  swelling  waves  he  spoke  his  woe, 

Drown  me  on  my  return. — but  spare  me.  as  I  go.-" 
The  letter  in  wliich  it  was  sent  bears  evidence,  too,  of  the  love  for  music 
which  was  characteristic  of  "Warton;  'It  will  be  my  utmost  ambition,' 
%vrote  tlie  boy,  'to  make  some  verses,  that  you  can  set  to  your  liarpsi- 
chord.' 

Warton 's  boyhood  days  seem  not  to  have  been  entirely  filled,  how- 
ever, witli  study.  Tliere  is  every  reason  to  believe  that  his  romantic 
interest  in  the  past,  his  fondness  for  the  scenes  of  stirring  events  and 
the  varied  life  of  earlier  days  was  kindled  at  a  very  early  age  by  famil- 
iarity with  historic  places,  not  only  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of 
Basingstoke — the  ruined  Chapel  of  the  Holy  Ghost  in  the  village  itself, 
adjacent  to  the  grammar  school,  the  scanty  ruins  of  Basing  House  a 
few  miles  away  near  the  scene  of  a  battle  between  the  Saxons  and  the 
Danes,  Odiham  Castle,  where  King  David  of  Scotland  was  imprisoned 
after  the  battle  of  Neville's  Cross, — but  also  by  excursions  with  his 
father  and  brother  to  more  distant  places  of  interest.  It  seems  quite 
likely  that  Salisbury  Plain  and  Stonehenge,  whose  mystery  deeply 
interested  Warton,-*  were  visited,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  brothers 
were  taken  by  their  father  to  see  Windsor  Castle.    Of  this  visit  it  was 

-*These  notes  were  first  incorporated  in  the  Obserx'alioiis  on  the  F.ierie  Queen, 
and  later  amplified  into  an  edition  of  the  minor  poems. 

-^Mant,  Op.  cit.,  p.  xxviii. 

-*/6irf.,  p.  xi. 

^''Letter  to  Jane  Warton,  November  7.  1737.    Ibid.,  p.  xii. 

-'Stonehenge  was  the  subject  of  a  sonnet  published  in  the  collected  edition  of 
Warton's  poems  in   1777. 


14  THOMAS  VVARTON  [14 

ri'lati'tl  that  wliili-  the  fatluT  and  tlic  older  brother  were  exainiiiiug  every 
detail  witli  eaper  and  volubh-  attention,  the  younger  observed  what  he 
saw  with  80  quiet  a  regard  tliat  his  fatlier  misconstrued  his  silence  as 
lack  of  interest  and  remarkeil  to  Joseph,  'Thomas  goes  on,  and  takes  no 
notice  of  any  thing  he  has  seen.'  Joseph,  however,  came  later  to  realize 
how  deei)]y  impressed  witli  everything  he  saw  the  younger  boy  had 
k'en,  and  remarked,  'I  believ<-  my  brother  was  more  struck  with  what  he 
saw,  and  took  more  notice  of  every  object,  than  either  of  us.'=°  The 
efTeet  of  this  \-isit  and  similar  experiences  in  his  early  youth  probably 
made  a  i)rofounder  impression  than  even  Joseph  realized;  to  them  was 
partly  due,  no  doubt,  Thouuis's  love  of  Gothic  architecture  and  old 
ruins.  In  a  reHection  upon  Milton  he  probably  described  his  own 
youthful  experience;  'Impressions  made  in  earliest  youth  are  ever 
afterwards  most  sensibly  felt.  Milton  was  probably  first  affected  with, 
and  often  indulged  the  pensive  i)leasure  wliieli  the  awful  solemnity  of 
a  Gothic  church  conveys  to  the  mind,  .  .  .  while  he  was  a  school-boy  at 
St.  Paul's'.™ 

In  March,  1744,  when  Thomas  had  reached  the  age  of  sixteen,  he 
was  sent  to  Oxford,"'  tlie  city  of  'dreaming  spires  and  droning  dons,' 
where  he  spent  the  renuunder  and  by  far  tlie  greater  part  of  his  life. 
At  the  same  time  Joseph  had  .just  taken  his  first  degree  and  entered 
holy  orders,  becoming  his  father's  curate.  It  is  evident  from  the  father's 
letters  at  this  time  that  the  expense  of  maintaining  his  sons  at  the 
tuiiversity  was  a  considerable  drain  upon  the  slender  resources  of  the 
country  vicar,  who  was,  however,  eager  that  his  sons  should  have  every 
opportunity  within  his  means  to  develop  their  talents  and  put  them  in  the 
way  of  securing  honourable  ])referment  in  the  church.  It  must  have 
been  tiieii  a  great  relief  that  Thomas  was  elected  one  of  the  twelve 
scholars  of  Trinity  College  in  the  following  year,  especially  since  his 
father  died  soon  after,  leaving  a  few  debts  and  no  resources  except  his 
poems.  But  Joseph  hit  upon  the  plan  of  publishing  the  latter  by  sub- 
serii)tion,  depending  upon  tlie  large  circle  of  his  father's  acquaintance 
to  ensure  tiieir  sale,  and  wrote  to  his  brother,  'Do  not  doubt  of  being 
able  to  get  some  money  this  w-inter;  if  ever  I  have  a  groat,  you  may 
depend  upon  having  twopence. '■- 

At  Oxford  Thomas  Warton  found  a  place  at  ouce  congenial  to  his 
aesthetic  and  ]ioetical  tastes  and  an  atmosphere  conducive  to  the  clas- 
sical and  antiquarian  studies  of  which  he  was  already  fond.  With 
habits  of  study  already  formed  and  with  an  eager  thirst  for  knowledge 

-"Mant.  Op.  cit.,  p.  x.\i.x. 

'^"Obscniilioiis  on  the  Faerie  Queen,  ed.  1807.  II.  p.  140. 

•■'Foster:     Atumni  Oxonieuses.  1715-1886.    4  vols.     O.xford,  iSgi.     IV.  p.  1505. 

^-Oct.  29.   1746.     Wooll,  Op.  cit.,  p.  215. 


15]  OXFORD  15 

he  was  at  most  ouly  momentarily  or  rarely  distracted  from  his  studies 
by  tile  iiniversal  tendency  to  idleness  and  dissipation  which  prevailed 
at  Oxford  throughout  the  eighteenth  century.  Wartou  himself  had 
exactly  that  sort  of  'quick  sensibility  and  ingenuous  disposition,'  that 
vivid  sense  of  the  reality  of  the  past,  which,  he  said,  was  able  to  evoke 
and  create  'the  inspiring  deity,'  the  'GENIUS  of  the  placr,'  at  the 
reflection  that  he  was  'placed  under  those  venerable  walls,  where  a 
HOOKER  and  a  HAiDIOND,  a  BACON  and  a  NEWTON,  once  pur- 
sued the  same  course  of  science,  and  from  whence  they  soared  to  the 
most  elevated  heights  of  literary  fame.'  lie  was  able  to  feel  'that 
incitement  which  Tully,  according  to  his  own  testimony,  experienced 
at  Athens,  when  he  contemplated  the  porticos  where  Socrates  sat,  and 
the  laurel-groves  where  Plato  disputed.""  Warton  found  in  this  emo- 
tional stimulus  a  substitute  for  the  intellectual  vigour  that  was  unques- 
tionably lacking  at  Oxford  during  the  eighteenth  century.  Nothing 
more  reveals  tiie  man  than  tlie  nature  of  his  reaction  to  the  life  of  the 
University. 

Testimony  as  to  the  intellectual  stagnation  at  Oxford  virtually 
throughout  the  whole  eighteenth  century  is  almost  unanimous.  The 
torpor  into  which  the  Church  of  England  had  sunk  early  in  the  century 
was  shared  by  the  University.  The  old  spell  of  tradition  and  reverence 
for  church  authority  was  losing  its  potency,  but  without  as  yet  being 
supjjlanted  by  any  very  \'igorous  and  general  spirit  of  reform.  With 
tile  theological  apathy  that  had  fallen  upon  the  universities  was  joined 
the  curse  of  formalism  and  obsolete  methods  in  education.  The  life  of 
the  university  was  expended  too  largely  in  political  factions,  in  Jacobite 
sympathies,  or  in  petty  disputes  over  fellowships  and  preferments.  The 
professors  seem  to  have  ceased  to  demand  regular  attendance  at  lectures 
which  they  seldom  delivered,  antl  the  interests  of  the  fellows  were  dis- 
tracted between  their  fellowships  and  their  benefices. 

West  Mrote  to  Gray  from  Christ  Church  as  from  a  'strange  coun- 
try, inhabited  by  things  that  call  themselves  doctors  and  masters  of 
arts;  a  country  flowing  with  syllogisms  and  ale,  where  Horace  and 
Virgil  are  equally  unknown.''*  Even  more  emphatically  Gibbon  la- 
mented the  fourteen  months  he  had  spent  at  Magdalen  College  as  the 
most  idle  and  unprofitable  of  his  whole  life,^'  and  testified  that  he  was 
'  never  summoned  to  attend  even  the  ceremony  of  a  lecture ;  and,  ex- 
cepting one  voluntary  visit  to  his  rooms,  during  the  eight  months  of  his 

^^Idler,  no.  Z3^  by  Thomas  Warton.  Johnson's  Works,  Lynam  ed.  1825.  II, 
p.  484. 

^*Letter  to  Gray,  November  14,  1735. 

^^Memoirs  of  my  Life  and  IVritings,  Miscellaneous  fVorks.  5  vols.  London, 
1814,  I,  p.  47- 


16  TnOSlAS  WABTOK  [16 

titular  offiw,  the  tutor  and  pupil  lived  in  the  same  college  as  strangers 
to  each  other.'"  The  eonipany  of  the  fellows  he  found  no  more  stimu- 
lating. 'From  the  toil  of  reading,  or  thinking,  or  writing,  they  had 
absolved  their  conscience;'  and  instead  of  the  'questions  of  literature' 
which  he  expected  them  to  discuss,  'their  conversation  stagnated  in  a 
round  of  eoll.ge  business.  Tory  politics,  personal  anecdotes,  and  private 
scandal:  their  dull  and  deep  potations  excused  the  brisk  intemperance 
of  youth.'" 

For  clever  satirical  descriptions  of  the  abuse  of  academic  privilege 
which  was  almost  universal  at  Oxford  we  are  indebted  to  "Warton  him- 
self, wlio  was.  however,  not  averse  to  profiting  by  the  leisure  which  the 
universal  neglect  of  college  exercises  gave  him  for  his  own  pursuits,  and 
who  doubtless  enjoyed  many  an  undignified  frolic  with  his  fellows.  He 
has  drawn  two  spirited  pictures  of  the  usual  college  fellow,  for  wliicli 
only  too  many  of  his  colleagues  might  have  sat.  The  first,  in  the  Prog- 
ress of  Discontent,  recounts  the  history  of  a  collegian  from  the  time — 

When  now  mature  in  classic  knowledge, 

The  joyful  youth  is  sent  to  college, 

and  his  father, — 

At  Oxford  bred — in  ,\nna's  reign, 

bespeaks  a  scholarship : — 

'Sir,   I'm  a  Glo'stershire  divine. 
And  this  my  eldest  son  of  nine; 
My  wife's  ambition  arid  my  own 
Was  that  this  child  should  wear  a  gown.' 


Our  pupil's  hopes,  tho'  twice  defeated. 
Are  with  a  scholarship  completed: 
A  scholarship  but  half  maintains, 
And  college-rules  are  heavy  chains : 
In  garret  dark  he  smokes  and  puns. 
A  prey  to  discipline  and  duns; 
And  now,  intent  on  new  designs, 
Sighs  for  a  fellowship — and  fines. 

That  prize  attained  at  length,  he  covets  a  benefice,  and  marries,  only,  at 
last,  to  long  for  the  joys  of  his  Oxford  days  again — 

'When  calm  around  the  common  room 

I  putT'd  my  daily  pipe's  perfume! 

Rode  for  a  stomach,  and  inspected, 

At  annual  bottlings,  corks  selected : 

And  din'd  untax'd,  untroubled,  under 

The  portrait  of  our  pious  Founder !' 

"Ibid.,  p.  s& 
"Ibid.,  p.  53. 


17]  OXFORD  17 

The  other,  the  very  amusing  Journal  of  a  Senior  Fcllotv,  or  Genuine 
Idler,  contributed  to  Johnson's  Idler, ^^  was  undoubtedly  drawn  from  the 
life  and  portrays  the  trivial  employments  of  a  majority  of  college  fel- 
lows, and  their  absolute  waste  of  academic  leisure. 

Monday,  Nine  o'Clock.  Turned  off  my  bed-maker  for  waking  me  at  eight. 
Weather  rainy.    Consulted  my  weather-glass.    No  hopes  of  a  ride  before  dinner. 

Ditto,  Ten.  After  breakfast,  transcribed  half  a  sermon  from  Dr.  Hickman. 
N.  B.  Never  to  transcribe  any  more  from  Calamy;  Mrs.  Pilcocks,  at  my  curacy, 
having  one  volume  of  that  author  lying  in  her  parlour  window. 

Ditto,  Eleven.  Went  down  into  my  cellar.  Mem.  My  Mountain  will  be  fit 
to  drink  in  a  month's  time.  A'.  B.  To  remove  the  five-j'ear-old  port  into  the  new 
bin  on  the  left  hand. 

Ditto,  Twelve.  Mended  a  pen.  Looked  at  my  weather-glass  again.  Quick- 
silver very  low.     Shaved.     Barber's  hand  shakes. 

Ditto,  One.  Dined  alone  in  my  room  on  a  soal.  iV.  B.  The  shrimp-sauce  not 
so  good  as  Mr.  H.  of  Peterhouse  and  I  used  to  eat  in  London  last  winter,  at  the 
Mitre  in  Fleet-street.  Sat  down  to  a  pint  of  Madeira.  Mr.  H.  surprised  me  over 
it.  We  finished  two  bottles  of  port  together,  and  were  very  cheerful.  Mem.  To 
dine  with  Mr.  H.  at  Peterhouse  next  Wednesday.  One  of  the  dishes  a  leg  of  pork 
and  peas,  by  my  desire. 

Ditto,  Six.     Newspaper  in  the  common  room. 

Ditto,  Seven.  Returned  to  my  room.  Made  a  tiff  of  warm  punch,  and  to  bed 
before  nine ;  did  not  fall  asleep  till  ten,  a  young  fellow-commoner  being  very 
noisy  over  my  head. 

Tuesday,  Nine.     Rose  squeamish.     A  fine  morning.     Weather-glass  very  high. 

Ditto,  Ten.  Ordered  my  horse,  and  rode  to  the  five-mile  stone  on  the  New- 
market road.  Appetite  gets  better.  A  pack  of  hounds  in  full  cry  crossed  the  road, 
and  startled  my  horse. 

Ditto,  Twelve.  Dressed.  Found  a  letter  on  my  table  to  be  in  London  the 
19th  inst.    Bespoke  a  new  wig. 

Ditto,  One.  .^t  dinner  in  the  hall.  Too  much  water  in  the  soup.  Dr.  Dry 
always  orders  the  beef  to  be  salted  too  much  for  me. 

Ditto,  Two.  In  the  common-room.  Dr.  Dry  gave  us  an  instance  of  a  gentle- 
man who  kept  the  gout  out  of  his  stomach  by  drinking  old  Madeira.  Conversation 
chiefly  on  the  expeditions.  Company  broke  up  at  four.  Dr.  Dry  and  myself 
played  at  back-gammon  for  a  brace  of  snipes.    Won. 

Ditto,  Five.  At  the  coffee-house.  Met  Mr.  H.  there.  Could  not  get  a  sight 
of  the  Monitor. 

Ditto,  Seven.  Returned  home,  and  stirred  my  fire.  Went  to  the  common- 
room,  and  supped  on  the  snipes  with  Dr.  Dry. 

Ditto,  Eight.  Began  the  evening  in  the  common-room.  Dr.  Dry  told  several 
stories.     Were  very  merry.     Our  new  fellow,  that  studies  physics,  very  talkative 

toward  twelve.     Pretends  he  will  bring  the  youngest  Miss  to  drink  tea 

with  me  soon.    Impertinent  blockhead !  etc.^' 

^'December  2,  1758.     No.  33. 

39Chalmers:    The  British  Essayists;  etc.    London  1808,  vol.  XXXIH,  p.  112. 


Ifi  THOMAS  WAKTON  [18 

Thf  unclirpruduutcs'  indilTereiice  to  everything  but  pleasure,  the 
inevitable  result  of  tlie  wlf-iiululgence  of  their  superiors,  came  in  for 
itM  sliure  of  ridicule  in  the  CumiMinioii  to  tin  Guide,  and  Guide  to  the 
Companioii,*"  a  satire  on  Oxford  guide-books  and  antiquarian  studies  as 
well  as  u  humorous  exposure  of  university  abuses.  Here  Warton  pro- 
fi-aw-d  to  describe  a  nundjer  of  residence  halls  previously  over-looked, 
•in  other  words  Inns,  or  Tipi)ling  Houses;  or,  as  our  colleges  are  at 
presi-nt.  I'laa s  of  Entertainimnt,'  the  'Libraries  founded  in  our  Coffee- 
Housis.  for  the  benefit  of  such  of  the  Academics  as  have  neglected,  or 
lost,  their  Latin  and  Greek,'  in  which  the  JIagazines,  Reviews,  Novels, 
Occasional  I'wms,  and  Political  I'ampldets  were  supplied.  And,  'as 
there  are  here  Books  suited  to  every  Taste,  so  there  are  Liquors  adapted 
to  every  species  of  reading,'  for  Politics,  coffee,  for  Divinity,  Port,  and 
80  on.  Then  there  were  a  number  of  schools  not  commonly  included  in 
the  guide-books:  among  them  'three  spacious  and  superb  Edifices,  situ- 
ated to  the  southward  of  the  High-Street,  100  feet  long,  by  30  in  breadth, 
vulgarly  called  Tenim  Courts,  where  Exercise  is  regularly  performed 
both  morning  and  afternoon.  Add  to  these,  certain  Schools  familiarly 
denominated  Billiard  Tables,  where  the  Laws  of  Motion  are  exemplified, 
and  which  may  be  considered  as  a  necessary  Supplement  to  our  Courses 
of  E.vperimental  Philosophy.  Nor  must  we  omit  the  many  Nine-pin 
and  Skittle-Alleys,  open  and  dry,  for  the  instruction  of  Scholars  in 
Geometrical  Knowledge,  and  particularly,  for  proving  the  centripetal 
prinei|)le.'  Among  public  edifices  he  solemnly  noted  the  stocks,  the  town- 
pump  and  'PEXNYLESS  BENCH "a  Place  properly  dedicated 

to  the  MUSES,  [where]  History  and  Tradition,  report,  that  many 
eminent  Poets  have  been  Bcnchfrs,'"  enumerating  among  them  Phillips 
and  the  author  of  the  Panecjtjric  on  Oxford  Ale. 

Although  Oxford  was  perhaps  no  longer  a  power  in  the  intellectual 
world,  it  was  still  one  of  the  few  places  in  England  where  there  were 
any  considerable  libraries  or  facilities  for  study,  and  there  was  always 
there  a  little  group  of  devoted  scholars  and  serious  men  who  used  the 
abundant  leisure  afforded  by  the  laxity  of  college  discipline  for  individ- 
ual research  and  study.  A  few  such  names  redeemed  the  dishonour  of 
Oxford  during  the  eighteenth  century.  There  have  always  been  at 
Oxford  a  few  scholars  who  were  genuinely  devoted  to  the  classics. 
There  were  others  whose  interests  centered  in  literary  and  historical 
antiiiuities,  but  who,  because  of  the  general  contempt  for  such  subjects 
and  their  own  inability  either  to  command  respect  for  their  work  or  to 
divert  their  interest  to  more  immediately  useful  channels,  fell  under  a 
certain  obloquy  as  'mere  Antiquarians.'     But  however  small  were  the 

"1-60? 

^'Quotations  from  the  second  edition,  London   (1762?). 


19  J  OXFORD  19 

results  of  their  laborious  studies,  they  kept  alive  ami  transmitted  to 
their  successors  in  more  favourable  days  an  ardent  interest  in  scholar- 
ship. Hickes  actually  made  the  study  of  Anglo-Saxon  somewhat  the 
rage  among  this  class  of  students  at  Oxford  at  the  beginning  of  the 
century,  and  his  influence  was  perpetuated  in  the  founding  of  the  Raw- 
linson  professorship  by  a  member  of  his  College  (St.  John's)  about  the 
middle  of  the  century,  an  endowment  which  became  effectual  at  its 
close  wheu  Anglo-Saxon  scholarship  was  coming  into  its  own.  Trinity 
College,  too,  had  its  antiquarian  tradition,  best  represented  by  John 
Aubre.y,  who  contributed  his  manuscript  Minutes  of  Lives  to  Anthony  a 
Wood's  Antiquities  of  Oxford;  Thomas  Coxeter,  an  industrious  collector 
of  old  English  plays,  who  was  still  living  when  Thomas  Warton  went 
up  to  Trinity  and  from  whom  he  must  have  gained  what  was  more 
valuable  than  notes  for  his  History  of  English  Poetry,  access  to  his 
collection  of  plays ;  and  Francis  Wi.se,  tlie  archeologist  and  under  keeper 
of  the  Bodleian,  at  whose  home  at  Ellsfield  Warton  was  a  frequent  and 
welcome  guest,  and  who  helped  liim  with  his  Life  of  Bathurst.  In  this 
connection  Robert  Lowth,  1)ishop  of  London,  poetrj^  professor  when 
Warton  went  to  Oxford  and  one  of  the  most  distinguished  Oxford  men 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  cannot  be  overlooked.  Warton  gave  him 
some  slight  assistance  with  his  life  of  Wykeham,''-  and  perhaps  received 
from  him  the  suggestion  for  his  lives  of  the  founder  and  a  president  of 
his  college.  Sir  Thomas  Pope  and  Ralph  Bathurst. 

Such  was  the  state  of  Oxford  when  Warton  matriculated  in  1744; 
such  it  practically  remained  during  the  forty -seven  years  he  lived  there. 
And  no  one  was  more  keenly  alive  than  he  to  all  its  possibilities  of 
pleasure  and  profit.  Although  most  of  his  life  was  passed  within  the 
boundaries  of  college  walls,  of  the  'High,'  the  'Broad,'  and  the  'Corn,' 
of  Cherwell  and  Isis  and  the  adjacent  parks  and  water-walks,  he  was 
master  of  every  inch  of  that  domain  and  was  equally  at  home  in  his 
own  common-room  and  'Captain  Jolly's,'  among  his  fellow  dons  and 
the  watermen  along  the  river.  He  found  at  Oxford  many  other  charms 
besides  a  favourable  place  to  study,  with  ample  leisure,  and  in  an 
atmosphere  permeated  with  the  spirit  of  centuries  of  learning.  It  was 
to  him  the  source  of  keen  sesthetie  pleasure.  With  appreciative  eyes 
he  viewed  the  Thames  and  Cherwell  with  their  'willow-fringed  banks,' 
the  charming  water-walks  bordered  with  fiue  old  trees  whose  protruding 
roots  and  mossy  trunks  afforded  many  a  delightful  place  to  read,  while 
the  gently-rolling  meadows  beyond  invited  to  morning  rambles  when 
the  fields  were  purpling  under  the  rising  sun  and  the  birds  were  begin- 
ning their  songs.*^    These  he  may  well  have  preferred  to  the  more  arti- 

^-Letter  from  Lowth  to  Warton,  Oct.  20,  1757.    Wooll,  Op.  cit.,  pp.  249-252. 
■•^Ode,  Morning.     The  Author  confined  to  College. 


20  THOMAS  WARTON  [20 

ficial  beauties  of  his  own  college  gardens,  then  in  their  prime  of  eight- 
eenth eentury  toi>iary  formality,  with  their  'walls  all  round  cover 'd 
witli  Green  Yew  in  I'annelwork'  enclosing  a  'wilderness  extremely  de- 
lightful with  variety  of  mazes,  in  which  'tis  easy  for  a  man  to  lose 
himself.'  It  is  pretty  unlikely  that  Warton  was  often  tempted  to  sit 
down  and  study  on  the  benches  placed  'here  and  there  in  this  Laby- 
rinth;' he.  at  least,  preferred  the  'setlgy  banks'  of  Cherwell  to  the  'neat 
Fountain  witli  Artitieial  Flowers  on  the  Surface  of  the  Water.'"  The 
real  glory  of  the  garden,  then  as  now,  must  have  been  the  beautiful 
avenue  of  lime  trees  to  the  north  of  the  labyrinth,  which  had  been 
planted  tliirty  years  before  Warton  came  to  Trinity,  and  whose  arches 
and  knarlfd  boughs  probably  even  then  resembled  the  wood-timbered 
roof  of  a  mediieval  hall. 

The  fine  old  Gothic  buildings  of  the  University  delighted  even 
more.  No  one,  perhaps,  has  viewed  them  with  more  enthusiastic  appre- 
ciation than  Thomas  Warton.  In  an  age  that  despised  tlie  Gothic  his 
admiration  for  it  grew  steadily,  and  liis  taste  was  no  doubt  stimulated 
by  the  fine  old  gateway  of  Magdalen  College,  on  wliich  he  was  especially 
fond  of  gazing.*'  His  Triumph  of  Isis  contains  a  tribute  to  the  beauties 
of  Oxford, — 

Ye  fretted  pinnacles,  ye  fanes  sublime, 

Ye  towers  that  wear  the  mossy  vest  of  time; 

Ye  massy  piles  of  old  munificence. 

At  once  the  pride  of  learning  and  defence ; 

Ye  cloisters  pale,  that  lengthening  to  the  sight. 

To  contemplation,  step  by  step,  invite ; 

Ye  high-arch'd  walks,  where  oft  the  whispers  clear 

Of  harps  unseen  have  swept  the  poet's  car ; 

Ye  temples  dim,  where  quiet  duty  pays 

Her  holy  hymns  of  ever-echoing  praise; 

Lo !  your  lov'd  Isis,  from  the  bordering  vale. 

With  all  a  mother's  fondness  bids  you  hail ! 
Especially  during  his  first  years  at  Oxford  Warton  probably  did 
not  devote  himself  exclusively  to  scholarly  pursuits,  but  tasted  the 
robuster  pleasures  and  petty  trials  of  the  lighter  side  of  Oxford  life, 
contributing  his  share  to  an  afternoon's  pleasure  at  Wolvereote,  enter- 
ing with  zest  into  games  of  skittles,  excursions  on  the  river  by  wherry, 
or  cros.s-country  gallops,  and  finishing  the  day's  pleasures  with  a  'care- 
less round  in  Iligh-street'  with  calls  at  'Jolly's  for  the  casual  draught.'** 
This  aspect  of  his  college  career  is  reflected   in   his  early  humorous 

"J.  Pointer's  Oxford  Guide,  1749,  quoted  by  H.  E.  D.  Blakiston.   friiiity  Col- 
lege, London,  1898,  p.  201. 

*i>Mant.  Op.  cit.,  p.  c,  quoting  the  Biografhical  Dictionary. 
"Warton's  Ode  to  a  Grisslc  Wig. 


21]  OXFORD  21 

academic  poems  witli  a  lively  realism  that  betrays  actual  experience  of 
the  joys  and  sorrows  they  describe. 

My  sober  evening  let  the  tankard  bless, 

With  toast  embrown'd,  and   fragrant  nutmeg  fraught, 

While  the  rich  draught  with  oft-repeated  whiffs 

Tobacco  mild  improves.     Divine  repast  I 

Where  no  crude  surfeit,  or  intemperate  joys 

Of  lawless  Bacchus  reign ;  but  o'er  my  soul 

A  calm  Lethean  creeps ;  in  drowsy  trance 

Each  thought  subsides,  and  sweet  oblivion  wraps 

My  peaceful  brain,  as  if  the  leaden  rod 

Of  magic  Morpheus  o'er  mine  eyes  had  shed 

Its  opiate  influence.    What  tho'  sore  ills 

Oppress,  dire  want  of  chill-dispelling  coals 

Or  cheerful  candle  (save  the  make-weight's  gleam 

Haply  remaining)   heart-rejoicing  ALE 

Cheers  the  sad  scene,  and  every  want  supplies.'" 
Lines  surely 

' with  honest  love 

Of  ALE  divine  inspir'd,  and  love  of  song! 
On  the  other  hand  the  petty  annoyances  are  no  less  realistically 
represented, — the  vacant  afternoons — 

When  tatter'd  stockings  ask  my  mending  hand 

Not  unexperienc'd, 
and   'the   tedious   toil   Slides   unregarded'   comforted   by   draughts  of 
' all-pow 'rful  ALE;'  the  inevitable  daj's  of  reckoning  after  careless  joys 
when 

.  .  .  generous  Captain  JOLLY  ticks  no  more,**' 

Nor  SHEPPARD,  barbarous  matron,  longer  gives 

The  wonted  trust.'" 
and 

Th'  unpitying  Bursar's  cross-affixing  hand 

Blasts  all  my  joys,  and  stops  my  glad  career,'"' 
and  the  invasion  of  his  Eden  by  irate  tradesmen, — the  'plaintive  voice 
Of  Laundress  slirill,'  the  'Barber  spruce,'  the  'Taylor  with  obsequious 
bow,'  and  the  Groom  'with  defying  front  And  stern  demeanour.' 

Warton's  poetical  gift  at  times  combined  with  his  genial  spirits  to 
enliven  somewhat  the  tedium  of  college  life.  Among  the  poetasters  of 
the  Bachelor's  Common  Room  he  started  an  amusing  organization  of  the 
bachelors,  which  provided  for  the  annual  election,  'on  Tuesday  imme- 
diately after  Mid-Lent  Sunday,'  of  a  'Lady  Patroness'  from  among  the 

"Panegyric  on  Oxford  Ale. 

*'The  Oxford  Newsman's  Verses,  for  the  year  1767. 

*^P(iiiegyric  on  Oxford  Ale. 


THOMAS  WAKTON 


[22 


Oxfonl  'Toasts'  aii.l  a  'I'(K-t  Laurt-at'  to  sing  her  charms  for  the  ainuse- 
iiu'iit  of  thi-  otli.r  Imcliflurs  wliilc  thi-y  eoiisumcd  a  bottli'  of  wine  'from 
thi-ir  publii-k  Stwk.'  an.l  liiv.Tt.-d  thi'msilvis  at  the  expense  of  their 
Laureate,  who  read  his  'Verses  before  the  Court'  wearing  'a  Chaplet  of 

Laurel coini)osfd  by  tlie  Conuaon-Room  JIan  after  the  manner 

of  the  Ancients.''"  Warton  iiinisi-lf  served  in  the  capacity  of  laureate 
for  tlie  first  two  years  of  tlie  club's  existence,  but  his  verses  to  Miss 
Jenny  Cotes  and  Miss  Molly  Wilinot  have  never  been  thought  worthy 
of  being  transferred  to  any  edition  of  his  poems  from  the  red-morocco- 
bound  quarto  in  which  they  were  carefully  copied  by  the  Common- 
Room  man.'  Warton  seems  to  have  been  tlie  life  of  the  club,  and  after 
he  deserted  tlie  Bachelors'  for  the  Fellows'  Common  Room,  the 
club  languished;  its  records  became  intermittent  and  finally  ceased 
altogether.''^ 

In  this  atmosphere  of  mingled  gaiety  and  work,  in  this  environ- 
ment of  obvious  pleasure  and  obscure  study,  Warton  spent  an  active  but 
uneventful  life.  Immediately  upon  taking  his  first  degree  he  entered 
holy  orders  and  became  a  tutor.  Shortly  after  he  had  proceeded 
Master  of  Arts,  he  succeeded  to  a  fellowship,  and  he  remained  a  tutor 
and  fellow  of  Trinity  all  his  life.  In  this  way  he  escaped  the  struggle 
for  a  livelihood  which  darkened  the  early  years  of  some  of  his  con- 
temporaries. Warton  knew  nothing  of  the  hard  life  of  Grub  Street  nor 
tlie  bitti'r  disappointments  against  which  his  friend  Dr.  Johnson  had 
contended.  His  academic  and  clerical  preferments  ensured  him  a  com- 
fortable, I'ven  a  luxurious,  living,  congenial  surroundings,  libraries,  and 
probably  the  most  convenient  facilities  for  literary  work  to  be  found 
anywhere  in  England,  and  a  considerable  amount  of  leisure  to  devote 
to  his  favourite  jnirsuits.  Warton  seems  never  to  have  regarded  him- 
self as  a  professional  man  of  letters.  His  first  love,  his  first  interest, 
was  Oxford ;  his  first  loyalty,  his  first  duty,  was  to  her.     And  if  he  was 

'"St.itiitcs  Ordered  and  .Agreed  upon  by  the  Members  of  tlic  Batchellors'  Com- 
mon Room.  This  book,  in  which  the  minutes  of  the  club  were  kept,  was  deposited 
in  Trinity  College  Library  in  November,  1820,  and  it  was  there  that,  through  the 
kindness  of  Mr.  Green,  the  present  librarian,  I  examined  the  curious  old  book. 
"They  were  printed  in  the  Gentleman's  Magasine,  vol.  LXVI,  p.  236. 
In  one  of  Warton's  notebooks  in  Trinity  College  Library  at  O.xford  is  a  bit 
*f  verse  of  a  similar  sort,  called  'E.xtempore  on  a  Lady  with  fine  Eyes  &  bad 
Voice',  as  follows : 

'Oxonia's  Sons  fair  Arnold  view 

At  once  with  Love  and  wonder. 
She  bears  Jove's  Lightening  in  her  Eyes, 
But  in  her  Voice  his  Thunder. 

Oxon.  Sept.  17,  1752.' 
'=In  17&4. 


23]  OXFORD  23 

somewhat  remiss  iu  his  lectures,  he  had  every  encouragement  to  be  so; 
and  he  more  than  once  suffered  liis  own  work  to  languish  while  he 
devoted  himself  to  his  pupils. 

It  was  very  natural  that  Warton  sliould  be  in  a  certain  sense 
indolent.  Without  the  spur  of  necessity  to  keep  him  steadily  at  one 
piece  of  work  until  it  was  finished,  without  great  ambition  for  academic 
or  church  preferment,  without  the  incentive  of  conspicuous  examples 
of  important  scholarship,  with  abundant  poetical  taste,  but  without 
much  creative  poetical  genius,  with  great  abilities  and  an  enthusiastic 
interest  in  a  wide  range  of  subjects,  it  was  eas.y  for  him  to  drift  from 
one  subject  to  another,  to  have  his  energies  frequently  diverted  into  new 
channels.  He  passed  with  perfect  ease  and  unabated  enthusiasm  from 
poetry  to  criticism,  from  antiquarian  to  classical  research,  from  literary 
history  to  the  editing  of  his  favourite  poet.  And  his  work  has  all  the 
merits  of  a  labour  of  love :  enthusiasm,  appreciative  criticism,  sympa- 
thetic interpretation  and  thoroughness  in  purpose,  if  not  always  in 
accomplishment ;  it  is  distinguished  in  everj'  field. 


CHAPTER  II 

Earlt  Poetry,  Published  Before  1777 

Naturally  enough  Warton  first  attempted  to  express  his  genius  in 
pot^ry,  and  the  bulk  though  not  the  best  of  his  poems  were  written 
while"  lie  was  yet  a  young  man.  Then,  because  the  age  in  which  he  lived 
was  unfavourable  to  poetry,  especially  the  new  kind  that  he  was  writing, 
and  because,  as  Christopher  North  said,  'the  gods  had  made  him  poet- 
ical, but  not  a  poet,''  he  turned  later  to  criticism  and  history  where  he 
won  more  immediate  as  well  as  more  enduring  fame.  He  did  not, 
however,  so  completely  abandon  poetry  as  not  to  produce  some  pieces 
which,  when  compared  with  the  work  of  his  contemporaries,  have  real 
intrinsic  value  and  take  an  important  place  in  the  development  of  poetry 
in  his  century.  Moreover,  his  early  verse,  though  largely  imitative,  imitates 
new  models,  the  poet's  favourites,  Spenser  and  Milton,  more  than  the 
pseudo-classical  models,  and  shows  a  real  originality  in  its  introduction 
of  the  Gothic  or  mediaeval  subjects  in  which  the  poet  was  always  deeply 
interested,  in  its  genuine  interest  in  nature,  and  in  its  attempts  of  the 
sonnet  form.  Besides  this,  his  verse  illustrates  more  completely  than 
that  of  any  one  of  his  contemporaries  the  whole  change  that  was  taking 
place  in  English  poetry;  it  includes  practically  every  tendency  of  the 
new  movement:  the  repudiation  of  the  pseudo-classical  models,  the 
Spenserian  and  Miltonic  revivals,  the  return  to  nature,  the  cult  of  soli- 
tude, the  melancholy  of  the  'grave-yard  school,'  the  interest  in  the 
supernatural,  and  the  Gothic  revival.  Although  Warton  lacked  the 
lyrical  sweetness  and  poetic  insight  of  his  friend  Collins — whose  quali- 
ties he  could  at  least  appreciate — and  the  poetic  fire  and  inspiration  of 
Gray — to  whom  he  paid  the  tribute  of  a  sonnet — these  are  the  poeta 
with  wliom  one  feels  bound  to  compare  him.  If  he  had  less  poetical 
genius  than  either  of  them,  he  had  at  least  a  greater  variety  of  interests, 
and  he  made  distinguished  contributions  in  the  direction  of  his  principal 
interests. 

Mn  Hour's  Talk  about  Poctrv,  Blackivood's  Edinburgh   Magii:iiic,  XXX,  p. 
483. 

24 


25]  EARLY  POETRY  25 

Warton's  first  published  poem,=  printed  without  his  name  in  his 
brother's  thin  quarto  of  Odes  on  Various  Subjects  in  1746,  was,  like  his 
earlier  school-boy  exercise,  a  classical  imitation.  The  j'ear  before  it 
appeared,  when  the  poet  was  but  seventeen,  he  had  written  his  first 
long  poem.  The  Pleasures  of  Melancholy,  and  he  published  it  anony- 
mously in  a  quarto  pamphlet  in  1747.  The  poem  shows  how  devoted  a 
student  of  Milton  the  young  poet  was,  the  tone  and  diction  being  de- 
cidedly Miltonic  although  the  title  and  the  form  were  obviously  directly 
suggested  by  Akenside's  much  less  romantic  Pleasures  of  Imagination. 
The  poem  follows  the  general  plan  of  II  Penseroso,  being  a  description 
of  the  various  pleasures  which  the  man  devoted  to  melancholy  contem- 
plation ma}^  enjoy,  and  it  is  fuU  of  personifications  of  abstractions  and 
Miltonic  epithets  and  diction.  A  few  typical  passages  will  illustrate 
both  Wartou  's  command  of  blank  verse  and  the  influence  of  Milton : — 
the  invocation, — 

Mother  of  musings.  Contemplation  sage, 

Whose  grotto  stands  upon  the  topmost  rock 

Of  Teneriff; 
and  such  direct  allusions  as, — 

the  dazzling  spells 

Of  wily  Comus  cheat  th'  unweeting  eye 

With  blear  illusion,  and  persuade  to  drink 

That  charmed  cup,  which  Reason's  mintage  fair 

Unmoulds,  and  stamps  the  monster  on  the  man ; 
and, — 

The  taper'd  choir,  at  the  late  hour  of  pray'r, 

Oft  let  me  tread,  while  to  th'  according  voice 

The  many-sounding  organ  peals  on  high, 

The  clear  slow-dittied  chaunt,  or  varied  hymn, 

Till  all  my  soul  is  bath'd  in  ecstasies. 

And  lapp'd  in  Paradise.^ 
The  whole  poem  is  saturated  too  with  the  melancholy  of  the  grave- 
yard school  of  poets,  and  passages  can  be  selected  which  seem  to  have 
been  directly  inspired  by  various  of  their  poems.  The  j'oung  poet  gives 
every  evidence  of  having  tried  his  hand  in  the  style  of  each  of  them; 
but  he  combined  the  results  into  a  whole  with  some  characteristic  addi- 

'To  a  Fountain.  Imitated  from  Horace,  Ode  Kill,  Book  III,  p.  32  in  War- 
ton's  Odes. 

A  small  collection  of  poems.  Five  Pastoral  Eclogues,  which  was  published 
anonymously  in  1745  and  subsequently  in  Pearch's  Continuation  of  Dodsley's  Col- 
lection, has  been  attributed  to  Warton,  but  probably  erroneously.  At  least  he 
never  acknowledged  them,  and  his  sister  assured  Bishop  Mant  that  he  positively 
disclaimed  them.    Mant,  Op.  cit.,  p.  xiv. 

^Cf.  II  Penseroso,  lines  161-6. 


26  '  THOMAS  WARTON  [26 

tioiis  of  Ilis  own.  Among:  the  linos  tliat  show  Warton's  debt  to  the 
early  poets  of  the  nielaneholy  scliool  tiie  following  are  obviously  imita- 
tions of  Parnell  and  Young, — 

But  when   the  world 

Is  clad  in  Midnight's  raven-coloiir'd  robe, 

'Mid  hollow  charncl  let  me  watch  the  flame 

Of  taper  dim.  shedding  a  livid  glare 

O'er  the  wan  heaps;  while  airy  voices  talk 

Along  the  glimm'ring  walls;  or  ghostly  shape 

At  distance  seen,  invites  with  beck'ning  hand 

My  lonesome  steps,  thro'  the  far-winding  vaults. 

Nor  undelightful  is  the  solemn  noon 

Of  night,  when  haply  wakeful  from  my  couch 

I  start :  lo.  all  is  motionless  around ! 

Roars  not  the  rushing  wind;  the  sons  of  men 

And  every  beast  in  mute  oblivion  lie; 

.Ml  nature's  hush'd  in  silence  and  in  sleep. 

O  then  how  fearful  is  it  to  reflect. 

That  thro'  the  still  globe's  awful  solitude, 

No  being  wakes  but  me ! 
The  description  of  'fall'n  Persepolis'  was  surely  written  with  Dyer's 
Ruins  of  Rome  fresh  in  memory, — 

Here  columns  heap'd  on  prostrate  columns,  torn 

From  their  firm  base,  increase  the  mould'ring  mass. 

Far  as  the  sight  can  pierce,  appear  the  spoils 

Of  sunk  magnificence !  a  blended  scene 

Of  moles,  fanes,  arches,  domes  and  palaces, 

Where,  with  his  brother  Horror,  Ruin  sits. 
The  description  of  the  morning  rain-storm,  no  doubt  suggested  by 
Thomson  and  not  without  echoes  of  Spenser,  bears  at  the  same  time 
unmistakable   evidence   of   Warton's   close   observation   of  rural   scenes 
and  his  ability  to  portray  them  in  simple  but  clear  outlines, — 

Yet  not  ungrateful  is  the  morn's  approach, 

When  dropping  wet  she  comes,  and  clad  in  clouds, 

While  thro'  the  damp  air  scowls  the  louring  south, 

Blackening  the  landscape's  face,  that  grove  and  hill 

In  formless  vapours  undistinguish'd  swim; 

Th'  afflicted  songsters  of  the  sadden'd  groves 

Hail  not  the  sullen  gloom;  the  waving  elms 

That,  hoar  tliro'  time,  and  rang'd  in  thick  array. 

Enclose  with  stately  row  some  rural  hall, 

Are  mute,  nor  echo  with  the  clamors  hoarse 

Of  rooks  rejoicing  on  their  airy  boughs; 

While  to  the  shed  the  dripping  poultry  crowd, 

A  mournful  train:  secure  the  village-hind 

Hangs  o'er  the  crackling  blaze,  nor  tempts  the  storm; 

Fix'd  in  th'  unfinish'd  furrow  rests  the  plough. 


27]  EARLY  POKTRY  27 

This  choice  of  models  was  not  accidental  even  from  the  first ;  it  was 
part  of  a  consistent  and  deliberate  reaction  against  the  prevailing  mod- 
els and  a  rejection  of  them.  His  preference  for  Spenser  rather  than 
Pope  Warton  stated  expressly  in  this  first  long  poem  and  defended  on 
the  very  'romantic'  ground  that  livelier  imagination  and  warmer  pas- 
sion are  aroused  by  the  artless  magic  of  the  Faerie  Queene  than  by  the 
artificial  brilliance  of  the  Rape  of  the  Lock, — 

Thro'  POPE'S  soft  song  tho'  all  the  Graces  breathe, 

And  happiest  art  adorn  his  Attic  page ; 

Yet  does  my  mind  with  sweeter  transport  glow, 

As  at  the  root  of  mossy  trunk  reclin'd. 

In  magic  SPENSER'S  wildly  warbled  song 

I  see  deserted  Una  wander  wide 

Thro'  wasteful  solitudes,  and  lurid  heaths, 

Weary,  forlorn ;  than  when  the  fated  fair 

Upon  the  bosom  bright  of  silver  Thames 

Launches  in  all  the  lustre  of  brocade, 

Amid  the  splendors  of  the  laughing  Sun. 

The  gay  description  palls  upon  the  sense. 

And  coldly  strikes  the  mind  with  feeble  bliss.* 
Warton 's  relation  to  the  melancholy  group  of  poets  who  drew  their 
inspiration  largely  from  II  Pciiseroso  is,  moreover,  not  that  of  a  mere 
imitator.  He  made  positive  contributions  to  that  style  of  poetry  by 
contriving  to  preserve  a  more  objective  tone  in  his  own  melancholy  and 
by  introducing  the  Gothic  note'*  tliat  later  frequently  became  dominant 
in  his  own  verse  and  constituted  his  distinctive  contribution  to  poetry. 
Of  even  greater  importance  is  the  fact  that  he  may  fairly  be  credited 
with  having  influenced  pretty  directly  the  greatest  poem  of  the  elegiac 
school,  Gray's  Elegy  in  a  Countrtj  Church-yard.  The  following  passage 
gives  the  setting  for  Gray's  poem  too  clearly  for  the  similarity  to  be 
dismissed  as  altogether  accidental, — 

Beneath  yon  ruin"d  abbey's  moss-grown  piles 

Oft  let  me  sit,  at  twilight  hour  of  eve, 

Where  thro'  some  western  window  the  pale  moon 

Pours  her  long-levell'd  rule  of  streaming  light ; 

While  sullen  sacred  silence  reigns  around, 
*This  brief  but   happy  comparison  of   Pope's  verse  with   Spenser's   expresses 
the  same  idea  that  was  given  fuller  discussion  nearly  ten  j'ears  later  by  the  poet's 
brother  in  his  revolutionary  Essay  on  Pope,  1756. 

'The   poem   also   gives    evidence   of   Warton's   interest   in   native   mythology : 
'Contemplation'  is  represented  as  having  been  found  by  a  Druid 

Far  in  a  hollow  glade  of  Mona's  woods, 
and  carried  to  the  'close  shelter  of  his  oaken  bow'r'  where  she 

lov'd  to  lie 

Oft  deeply  list'ning  to  the  rapid  roar 

Of  wood-hung  Meinai,  stream  of  Druids  old. 


28  THOMAS  WARTON  [28 

Save  the  lone  schreech-owl's  note,  who  builds  his  bow'r 

Amid  the  mould'ring  caverns  dark  and  damp, 

Or  the  calm  breeze,  that  rustles  in  the  leaves 

Of  flaunting  ivy,  that  with  mantle  green 

Invests  some  wasted  tow'r. 
The  additional  fact  tliat  Gray  took  up  again  in  the  winter  of  1749 — 
two  years  after  The  Pleasures  of  MeUinchohj  was  published— the  poem 
he  had  begun  several  years  earlier"  increases  the  likelihood  that  War- 
ton's  poem  prompted  and  influenced  the  completion  of  his  own : — 

Now  fades  the  glimmering  landscape  on  the  sight, 
And  all  the  air  a  solemn  stillness  holds, 

Save  that  from  yonder  ivy-mantled  tow'r 

The  mopeing  owl  does  to  the  moon  complain 
Of  such  as,  wand'ring  near  her  secret  bow'r, 
Molest  her  ancient  solitary  reign. 

Warton's  devotion  to  his  Alma  Mater  inspired  the  Triumph  of  I  sis, 
in  1749,  the  first  poem  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  academic  world. 
The  year  before,  William  Mason,  in  Isis:  an  Elegy,  had  glanced  at  the 
Jacobite  leanings  of  Oxford  as  tliey  had  given  rise  to  a  foolish  drunken 
out-break  which  had  been  carried  to  tlie  King's  bench  and  had  reflected 
dishonour  upon  the  heads  of  some  of  the  colleges.  Warton,  encouraged 
by  Dr.  Iluddesford,  the  president  of  Trinity,  hastened  to  the  defense 
of  his  university  in  a  poem  that  at  least  surpassed  Mason's.  The  youth- 
ful poet  received  a  substantial  compliment  from  Dr.  King,  whom  he 
had  especially  commended,  and  who  left  five  guineas  with  Daniel  Prince, 
the  bookseller,  to  be  given  to  the  author.  The  Triumph  of  Isis  is  not  one 
of  Warton's  best  poems.  It  is  largely  pseudo-classical  in  its  tise  of  the 
heroic  couplet,  its  artificial  diction, — such  as  'vernal  bloom,'  'oliv'd 
portal,'  'pearly  grot,'  'floating  pile,'  'dalliance  with  the  tuneful  Nine,'^ 
and  in  its  stereotyped  classical  allusions.  It  is  full  of  Miltonic  personi- 
fications of  abstractions  and  places  mingled  with  the  deities  and 
heroes  of  classical  myth  and  history ;  we  meet  with  Freedom  and  Gratu- 
lation,  Cam  and  Isis,  Muse  and  Naiad,  Tully,  Cato  and  Eurus.  But 
there  is  quite  as  much  mediaeval  colouring.  Warton's  characteristic 
love  of  the  past  appears  in  one  of  the  finest  passages  in  the  poem  in 
which  his  admiration  for  Gothic  architecture  is  only  second  to  his  love 
of  Oxford.' 

Following  the  appearance  of  these  poems  Warton  was  asked  to  con- 
tribute to  the  Student,  or,  the  Oxford,  and  Cambridge  Monthly  Miscel- 
lany, and  brought  out  four  poems  of  earlier  composition  which  were 

•See  Gray's  Works,  ed.  Gosse,  I,  p.  72. 
'Quoted   p.   20. 


29]  EARLY  POETRY  29 

printed  over  various  signatures.*  One,  Morning.  The  Author  confined 
to  College,  in  six  line  stanzas,  shows  some  influence  of  Milton  and  a 
personal  enjoyment  of  natural  scenes,  and  one  is  a  paraphrase  of  Job 
XXXIX  in  heavy  couplets,  unlike  any  other  of  Warton's  verse.  Two 
of  the  poems  were  humorous  academic  verse,  experiments  in  satire  and 
burlesque  in  the  taste  of  the  Augustans.  The  earliest  of  them,  the 
Progress  of  Discontent,^  written  in  1746,  was  considered  by  the  poet's 
brother,  who  may  not  have  been  an  impartial  critic,  the  best  imitation  of 
Swift  that  had  ever  appeared."  It  is  a  mild  satire  upon  the  career  of 
many  a  young  man  who,  with  discontented  indolence  rather  than  ambi- 
tion, sought  advancement  through  the  university  and  church,  and  the 
story  is  told  in  vigorous  Hudibrastic  measure  with  considerable  relish 
and  spirit.  The  Panegyric  on  Oxford  Alc^^  is  probably  the  best  of  his 
humorous  academic  pieces.  It  is  a  burlesque  of  ililton's  epic  style  after 
the  manner  of  Phillips's  Splendid  Shilling.  The  blank  verse  is  weU 
managed,  and  the  mock  dignified  humour  well  kept  up  throughout  the 
poem.  The  models  are  unmistakable ;  there  are  direct  allusions  to  both, 
and  the  poem  concludes  with  comparing  the  imhappiness  of  the  poet 
whose  supply  of  ale  is  cut  off  with  that  of  Adam  shut  out  from  Paradise, — 
a  grief  he  professed  to  share  in  common  with  his  master,  the  author  of 
the  Splendid  Shilling, — 

Thus  ADAM,  exil'd  from  the  beauteous  scenes 
Of  Eden,  griev'd,  no  more  in  fragrant  bow'r 
On  fruits  divine  to  feast,  fresh  shade  and  vale 
No  more  to  visit,  or  vine-mantled  grot ; 

Thus  too  the  matchless  bard,  whose  lay  resounds 

The  SPLENDID  SHILLING'S  praise,  in  nightly  gloom 

Of  lonesome  garret,  pin'd  for  cheerful  ALE; 

Whose  steps  in  verse  Miltonic  I  pursue, 

Mean  follower :  like  him  with  honest  love 

Of  ALE  divine  inspir'd,  and  love  of  song. 

But  long  may  bounteous  Heav'n  with  watchful  care 

Avert  his  hapless  lot !     Enough  for  me 

^A  Panegyrick  on  Ale,  signed  T.  W.  x.  y.  z.,  p.  65-8;  Morning.  An  Ode, 
signed  /.  /.  Trin.  Coll.  Cambridge,  p.  234-5 1  The  Progress  of  Discontent,  signed 
T.  W.  X.  y.  z.,  p.  23S-8;  Job,  Chapter  XXXIX,  signed  e,  p.  278-9.  O.xford,  1750, 
vol.  I. 

"The  poem  was  founded  on  a  Latin  exercise  which  was  commended  by  Dr. 
Huddesford,  and  at  his  request  thus  paraphrased  in  English.  Mant,  Op.  cit.,  II, 
p.  192. 

i°J.  Warton's  edition  of  Pope,  9  vols.  London,  1797,  11,  p.  302. 

"Quoted  above  p.  21. 


30 


TUpMAS  WARTON  [30 


That  burning  with  congenial  flame  I  dar'd 

His  guiding  steps  at  distance  to  pursue. 

And  sing  his  favorite  theme  in  kindred  strains. 
In  tlu-  suiiu-  vcar  Wartoii  matle  two  ofluT  modest  ofTt-rings,  both  of 
sliglit  iiniwrtanci-!  X<wmark(t,  u  Satire,  published  aiionyniously,  was  a 
somewhat  hcavj'  Popeian  satire  in  closed  coupk-ts  with  balance,  antithesis, 
and  not  infrequent  epigrammatic  turns  of  thought.  Another  pamphlet 
contained  an  academic  poem,  an  Ode  for  Musk,  written  for  the  anniver- 
sary in.  commemoration  of  tlie  benefactors  to  the  university,  and  per- 
formed at  the  Sheldonian  Theatre,  July  2,  1751. 

In  all  these  attempts  the  poet  was  evidently  trying  to  find  both 
him.self  an<l  his  public.  Tluit  he  felt  the  need  of  winning  an  audience 
for  poetry  which  was  tleliberately  different  from  the  prevailing  fashion 
is  shown  by  the  fact  that  much  of  it  was  published  anonymously  and  that 
in  his  next  publication,  to  which  he  did  not  afifix  his  name, — The  Union: 
or  Srlict  Scots  and  English  Poems,  containing  some  of  his  brother's  odes, 
Collins "s  Ode  to  Evening,  and  Gray's  Elegij'  a  few-  ancient  Scottish 
poems,  and  minor  poems  by  some  of  his  contemporaries, — he  asked  for  the 
verdict  of  the  public  upon  two  new  poems  of  his  own  which  he  included 
witliout  owning  them.'=  In  his  preface,  as  in  the  table  of  contents,  he 
ascribed  them  to  'a  late  member  of  the  University  of  Aberdeen,  whose 
modesty  would  not  permit  us  to  print  his  name,'  and  he  further  drew 
tiiem  and  their  author  to  public  attention  by  adding,  'from  these 
ingenious  essays,  the  public  may  be  enabled  to  form  some  judgment 
beforehand  of  a  poem  of  a  nobler  and  more  important  nature  which  he 
is  now  i)reparing.'  Since  it  was  Warton's  life-long  practice  to  announce 
in  his  various  publications  work  which  he  had  then  in  hand  or  intended 
soon  to  inibli.sh,  there  is  no  reason  for  supposing  t'aat  he  did  not  at  the 
time  actually  intend  to  write  a  serious  and  extended  poem  of  some  kind, 
with  which  the  favour  of  the  public  did  not  encourage  him  to  proceed. 
Of  the  two  poems  thus  modestly  proffered,  the  Pasiorcd  in  the  Man- 
ner of  Spenser  was  patently  inspired  by  the  poet  whose  work  Warton 
was  then  studying  carefully  both  as  poet  and  critic,  and  the  Ode  on  the 
Approach  of  Summer  was  obviously  I\Iiltonic.  The  former  is  a  double 
imitation,  a  paraphrase  of  the  20th  IdiiUium  of  Theocritus  in  the  manner 
of  Spenser's  Shepherd's  Calendar  with  pseudo-Spenserian  diction.  But 
like  other  eighteenth  century  imitators  of  Spenser — of  whom,  it  will  be 
remembered,  his  father  was  perhaps  the  first — Warton  had  not  enough 
knowledge  of  Spenser's  language  to  escape  such  solecisms  as  'did 
deemen',  nor  could  his  admiration  save  him. 

Some  passages  of  the  Ode  are  little  more  than  rearrangements  of 

"His  verses  Inscribed  On  a  Beautiful  Grotto  near  the   Water  were  also   in- 
cluded, but  without  his  name. 


31]  E^VRLY  POETRY  31 

Milton's  thought  and  even  diction,  although  it  is  noticeable  that  Warton 
was  somewhat  truer  to  the  spirit  of  his  model  than  many  of  Milton's 
imitators;  his  melanchol.v  is  not  so  obtrusive  as  theirs,  and  he  retains 
much  of  Milton's  genuine  classicism,  with  which  he  was  in  close 
sympath}-.  All  of  these  points  are  illustrated  by  the  following  passage, 
selected  almost  at  random, — 

Or  bear  me  to  yon  antique  wood, 

Dim  temple  of  sage  Solitude ! 

There  within  a  nook  most  dark, 

Where  none  my  musing  mood  may  mark, 

Let  me  in  many  a  whisper'd  rite 

The  Genius  old  of  Greece  invite, 

With  that  fair  wreath  my  brows  to  bind. 

Which  for  his  chosen  imps  he  twin'd, 

Well  nurtur'd  in  Pierian  lore, 

On  clear  Illissus'  laureate  shore. 

Warton  was,  however,  more  interested  in  the  mysteries  of  native 
superstition  than  in  Grecian  rites.  Stirred  by  reading  Spenser  and  old 
romances,  he  sighed  for  'more  romantic  scenes,'  for  the 

.  .  .  fairy  bank,  or  magic  lawn, 
By  Spenser's  lavish  pencil  drawn : 
Or  bow'r  in  Vallombrosa's  shade. 
By  legendary  pens  pourtray'd. 

He  longed  to  visit 

The  rugged  vaults,  and  riven  tow'rs 
Of  that  proud  castle's  painted  bow'rs, 
Whence  HARDYKNUTE,  a  baron  bold, 
In  Scotland's  martial  days  of  old, 
Descended  from  the  stately  feast, 
Begirt  with  many  a  warrior  guest, 
To  quell  the  pride  of  Norway's  king. 
With  quiv'ring  lance  and  twanging  string. 

And  when  he  continued, — 

Might   I  that  holy  legend  find, 
By  fairies  spelt  in  mystic  rhymes. 
To  teach  enquiring  later  times. 
What  open  force,  or  secret  guile, 
Dash'd  into  dust  the  solemn  pile, 

he  had  passed  from  the  influence  of  Milton  and  Spenser  into  his  own 
best-loved  poetical  province,  the  glories  of  the  Gothic  past. 

This  most  representative  of  Warton 's  earliest  poems  contains  also 
what  appears  to  be  his  poetical  program.  It  has  been  said  before  that 
the  preface  to  the  collection  in  which  these  poems  appeared  had  hinted 
at  a  longer  poem  by  the  same  author  soon  to  be  published  should  these 


, 


32 


TnOMAS  WARTON  [32 


meet  witli  favour;  the  Ode  suggests  what  the  nature  of  that  'nobler  and 
more  important'  poem  might  have  been.  The  prophecy  of  his  most 
striking  contribution  to  the  new  movement  in  poetry,  the  poetical  embodi- 
ment  of  tin-  past,  begun  even  in  his  early  work,  appears  in  a  passage  near 
tlic  dos.'  of  the  poem  wliere  the  poet,  ensconced  in  his  ideal  retreat, 
promises  to  dedicate  his  days  to  poetry,  poetry  which  shall  celebrate 
England's  glorious  past, — 

Nor  let  me  fail,  meantime,  to  raise 

The  solemn  song  to  Britain's  praise: 

To  spurn  the  shepherd's  simple  reeds, 

And  paint  heroic  ancient  deeds : 

To  chant  fam'd  ARTHUR'S  magic  tale, 

And  EDWARD,  stern  in  sable  mail; 

Or  wand'ring  BRUTUS'  lawless  doom. 

Or  brave  BONDUCA,  scourge  of  Rome. 
Tliesf  are  the  themes  we  find  constantly  recurring  through  Warton's 
I)octry,  finding  their  best  expression  later  in  the  odes  On  the  Grave  of 
King  Arthur  and  The  Crusade. 

That  "Warton  was  not  simply  an  imitative  poet  was  steadily  proved 
by  each  new  poem,  and  by  none  more  strikingly  than  by  two  sonnets 
l)nblished  in  1755  in  Dodsley's  Collections^  He  was  a  constant  experi- 
menter with  forms  as  well  as  subjects  of  poetry.  It  may  have  been — 
pretty  certainly  was — his  admiration  for  Milton  again  that  interested 
him  in  the  sonnet,  but  tlie  subjects  of  his  sonnets  are  not  only  so  un- 
Miltonic  but  so  original  in  their  use  of  the  form  to  express  personal 
emotion  in  the  presence  of  natural  scenes  as  to  show  him  a  real  and 
important  innovator.  Warton  was  not,  however,  the  first  eighteenth 
century  poet  to  write  sonnets;  Mason,  Stillingfleet,  and  Edwards  had 
each  written  a  few,  so  that  the  whole  credit  for  its  revival  cannot  be 
claimed  for  any  one  of  them.'*    But  certainly  "Warton's  greater  impor- 

'■■•Vol.    IV,    p.   221-2. 

'^Mason  has  a  sonnet  written  before  1748,  according  to  his  own  somewhat 
loose  statement,  but  not  published  until  1797.  See  Mason's  Works,  ed.  1811,  I, 
p.  121. 

Edwards  wrote  fifty.  (See  Phelps's  Romantic  Movement,  p.  45-6).  Thirteen 
were  published  in  volume  II  of  Dodsley's  Collection,  1748  (2nd  ed.)  in  which 
Warton's  first  two  sonnets  were  published,  vol.  IV,  (ed.  1755).  See  my  note  in 
Mod.  Lang.  Notes,  XXX,  p.  232. 

Some  of  Stillingfleet's  sonnets  were  certainly  written  before  1750.  Phelps,  as 
above. 

Gray's  Sonnet  on  the  Death  of  West  has  an  even  earlier  date,  1742,  but  it  was 
not  published  until  after  his  death. 

See  also  E.  P.  Morton's  list  of  fifty  sonnets  before  1750  in  Mod.  Lang.  Notes, 
XX,  p.  97-8,  The  English  Sonnet,  (1658-1750),  which  does  not  include  Mason's  first 
sonnet. 


33]  EARLY  POETRY  33 

tance  as  a  man  of  letters  and  the  superior  merit  and  originality  of  theme 
of  his  sonnets  make  his  influence  greater  in  the  revival  of  the  sonnet 
than  that  of  any  of  his  predecessors. 

The  Sonnet  Written  at  Winslade  in  Hampshire  'about  1750'  is  the 
better  of  the  two.  It  is  not  free  from  the  influence  of  Miltonic  diction — 
though  not  the  diction  of  the  sonnets;  it  is  distinctly  personal  and 
reflective  in  tone,  and  further  it  indicates  Wartou  's  feeling  that  in  their 
poetical  inspiration  the  native  charms  of  the  village  were  peculiarly 
adapted  to  his  genius.  It  shows  that  his  interest  in  natural  scenes  as 
the  source  of  poetic  emotion  was  as  conscious  and  deliberate  in  his  early 
verse  as  his  interest  in  the  past  for  the  same  purpose, — 

Her  faire3t  landskips  whence  my  Muse  has  drawn, 

Too  free  with  servile  courtly  phrase  to  fawn, 

Too  weak  to  try  the  buskin's  stately  strain. 
The  Sonnet  on  Bathing^''  is  likewise  Miltonic  in  diction,  but  it  wholly 
lacks  the  personal  note  that  distinguishes  the  other.  Both  are  written 
in  the  Miltonic  form,  with  better  rhymes  than  some  of  his  later  sonnets. 
The  important  long  poem  promised  in  the  preface  to  the  Union 
never  appeared.  The  poet  was  not  only  not  sufficiently  encouraged  by 
the  reception  of  his  poems  in  that  collection,  but  so  far  discouraged  as 
to  publish  no  more  serious  poems  until  after  his  fame  as  the  critic  of 
Spenser  and  historian  of  English  poetry  made  them  sure  of  a  favourable 
hearing,  perhaps,  too,  until  his  critical  work  had  somewhat  won  the 
taste  of  his  age  to  the  new  sort  of  poetry.  He  made,  however,  one 
further  venture  in  the  humorous  vein  which  had  always  a  certain  vogue. 
In  1764  he  was  the  unconfessed  editor  of  a  misceUany  of  humorous  verse 
called  The  Oxford  Sausage;  or,  Select  Poetical  Pieces:  Written  by  the 
Most  Celebrated  Wits  of  the  University  of  Oxford.  His  own  earlier 
academic  verse  with  several  new  pieces  of  inferior  merit  were  included 
in  this  miscellany  with  a  great  many  similar  poems  by.  his  contempora- 
ries. The  preface,  in  mock-serious  style,  explained  the  purpose  and 
praised  the  novelty  of  such  a  collection  and  poked  slyly  at  the  growing 
fondness  for  poring  over  manuscript  collections :  '  That  nothing  might 
escape  us,  we  have  even  examined  the  indefatigable  Dr.  Rawlinson's 
voluminous  collection  of  manuscripts  presented  to  the  Bodleian  Library, 
but,  we  must  acknowledge,  without  success;  as  not  one  poignant  ingre- 
dient was  to  be  found  in  all  that  immense  heap  of  rare  and  invaluable 
originals.'^"  Of  the  two  poems  little  need  be  said.  The  not  very  amusing 
dialogue  between  the  Phaeton  and  the  One-Horse  Chair  is,  apparently, 

I'This  sonnet  was  the  only  one  of  Warton's  included  by  Coleridge  in  his 
privately-printed  pamphlet  containing  twenty-eight  'Sonnets  from  various  Authors', 
to  be  bound  up  with  those  of  Bowles. 

"Preface,  p.  vi,  ed.  1821,  Oxford. 


34  THOMAS  W.VHTON  [34 

118  a  revit'WiT  in  tht-  Monthly  Review"  observed,  an  imitation  of  Smart's 
fahli-  of  tiK'  RugAVio  and  Tohicco-Pipc.  Jlore  clever  is  the  little 
Odt  to  a  Grhzli  Wig  in  wliidi  Warton,  while  comparing  the  relative 
merits  of  'bob'  and  'grizzle',  frequently  burlesqued  with  relish  the  man- 
ner of  Milton's  shorter  poems.  These  poems  and  the  Oxford  News- 
man's Vcrsrs  were  eviilently  dashed  off  with  more  enjoyment  of  the 
fun  than  jioetry,  and  their  eliief  interest  lies  in  the  fact  that  they  show 
the  poet  in  his  most  robust  and  genial  mood. 

The  most  interesting  of  the  new  Warton  poems,  however,  is  not  by 
Thomas  Warton,  but  by  his  brother  Joseph,  the  Epistle  from  Thomas 
Jluirnr,  Antiquanj,  to  the  Author  of  the  Companion  to  the  Oxford 
Guide."  which  on  the  authority  of  Mant'»  has  been  pretty  generally 
accepted  as  written  by  Thomas  Warton.-"  But  surely  there  are  many 
who  are  loath  to  believe  that  Warton  directed  this  clever  squib  at  him- 
self, when  the  author  of  the  Companion  and  the  editor  of  the  Sausage 
were  so  generally  gues.sed  to  be  tlie  same,  and  who  are  glad  to  find 
among  Joseph  Warton 's  letters  a  letter  to  Thomas  in  which  he  calls  it 
his  own.-'    "The  poet  addressed  Warton  as — 

Friend  of  the  moss-grown  spire  and  crumbling  arcli, 
and  concluded  with  a  curse  upon  his  antiquarian  studies — 
may  curses  every  search  attend 

That  seems  inviting!    May'st  thou  pore  in  vain 

For  dubious  door-ways !     May  revengeful  moths 

Thy  ledgers  eat.     May  chronologic  spouts 

Retain  no  cypher  legible !     May  crypts 

Lurk  undisccrn'd !     Nor  may'st  thou  spell  the  names 

Of  saints  in  storied  windows !     Nor  the  dates 

Of  bells  discover!     Nor  the  genuine  site 

Of  Abbots'  pantries !     And  may  Godstowe  veil, 

Deep  from  thy  eyes  profane,  her  Gothic  charms! 
Warton 's  apparent  abandonment  of  poetry  at  the  very  moment 
when  he  seems  to  have  been  passing  from  poetry  largely  imitative  to 
poetry  with  considerable  originality  and  intrinsic  value  demands  some 
explanation.  The  reasons  for  Warton 's  partial  desertion  of  poetry  and 
turn  to  critical  and  historical  studies  are  in  part  the  same.  It  is  gener- 
ally recognized  that  the  eighteenth  century  was  conspicuously  an  age 
of  prose,  of  reason,  of  skepticism,  of  didacticism ;  its  characteristic  poetry 
was  either  prosaic  or  merely  brilliant  and   correct;  and  its  attitude 

■'XCI.  p.  275. 

'M  Companion  to  the  Guide,  and  a  Guide  to  the  Companion,  London  (1760). 
'"Who  included  it  in  his  edition  of  Warton's  poems,  II,  p.  189. 
="11   is   quoted   among    Warton's    antiquarian    pieces    by    Professor    Beers    in 
English  Romanticism  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  p.  201-2. 
^"Letter  of  July  5,  1769,  Wooll,  Op.  cit.,  p.  348. 


35]  E^VRLY  POETRY  35 

toward  imagination,  enthusiasm,  romance,  decidedly  hostile.  It  was 
not  the  age  to  encourage  such  a  poet  as  Thomas  Warton  with  his  enthu- 
siastic love  of  the  older  neglected  poets  and  his  fondness  for  romance, 
nor  to  be  moved  by  descriptions  of  the  glories  of  the  past.  The  stand- 
ards and  ideals  of  tlie  school  of  Pope  were  not  yet  overthrown, — Warton 
himself  did  not  immediateh'  escape  from  their  influence  in  his  own 
poetry, — and  there  jjrobably  were  few  who  read  his  verse  with  sympa- 
thetic appreciation.  And  Warton 's  poetical  genius  was  not  suf3Sciently 
robust  to  weather  the  storms  of  unfavourable  criticism.  Later  in  his 
life  his  sensitiveness  to  ridicule  of  his  poetry — he  could  endure  with 
composure  the  most  virulent  abuse  of  his  other  work — cost  him  the 
friendship  of  Dr.  Johnson ;  at  this  period  criticism  simply  repressed  his 
poetic  fervor.  It  is  characteristic  of  his  natural  modesty  as  well  as  of 
his  appreciation  of  the  general  lack  of  sympathy  with  his  Gothic  muse 
that,  except  in  very  early  letters  to  liis  brotlier,--  although  he  wrote  freely 
of  his  plans,  his  progress  with  all  his  other  work  of  all  sorts,  there  is  no 
mention  of  his  poetry,  even  in  his  letters  to  Price,  to  whom  he  wrote 
intimately.-'' 

As  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  poetry  which  Warton  wrote,  excel- 
lent as  some  of  it  is,  his  was  not  a  great  poetical  genius.  Poetical  taste, 
feeling  and  enthusiasm  he  had  in  abundance,  but  there  seems  to  have 
been  a  lack  of  the  creative  spark.  How  great  a  poet  he  might  have 
become  in  more  favourable  circumstances  it  would  be  futile  to  enquire ; 
we  can  only  concern  ourselves  with  the  reasons  whj-  he  was  not,  and 
with  watching  the  development  of  his  genius  in  other  fields. 

Unlike  Gray,-*  who,  under  similar  circumstances  and  with  a  greater 
poetic  gift  than  Warton,  was  all  but  silenced  by  his  uncongenial  envi- 
ronment and  his  inability  to  express  himself,  Warton  was  able  to  turn 
the  force  of  his  genius  into  other  channels.  In  Gray  both  the  poet  and 
the  scholar  were  repressed ;  his  powers  were  apparently  inhibited  by 
forces  beyond  his  control,  an  involuntary  but  unconquerable  inertia. 
Warton  with  greater  energy,  robuster  health,  and  more  vigorous  hold 
upon  reality,  could  accomplish  what  Gray,  because  of  his  sensitive 
reticence,  continual  ill-health  and  dreamy  impracticality,  could  not. 

With  less  practical  force,  and  probably  less  profound  scholarship, 
Warton  turned  his  gifts  to  better  account  and  made  for  himself  a  much 
larger  place  in  the  history  of  English  criticism  and  scholarship.    Gray 

^^Letters  of  October  29,  1746  and  June  7,  1753.    Wooll,  Op.  cit.,  pp.  214,  217. 

=^In  two  letters  to  Malone  there  is  very  brief  mention  of  poetry.  Jul.  29, 
1787.  'You  flatter  me  much  in  your  opinion  of  my  last  Ode.'  Jan.  3,  1789.  'I  appear 
in  the  Papers,  not  only  as  an  Esquire,  but  as  the  author  of  a  New  Year's  Ode 
which  I  never  wrote.'     British  Museum  Additional  MSS.  No.  30375. 

-*See  Arnold's  Essay. 


36  THOMAS  WARTON  [36 

had  uot  the  versatility  and  adaptability  which  enabled  Warton  to  find 
anotlier  outlet  for  his  genius  when  that  of  poetr.y  proved  difficult.  He 
was  equally  a  scholar  with  Warton,  but  his  scholarship  was  barren.  Both 
as  u  poet  and  as  a  scholar  his  fervor  was  repressed  and  his  genius  ren- 
dered inarticulate.  In  the  ease  of  Warton  there  was  no  such  tragedy 
of  unexpressed  genius.  Discouraged  as  a  poet,  he  turned  his  poetical 
enthusiasm,  his  love  for  the  Gothic,  for  romance,  into  criticism  and 
history ;  the  poet  all  but  disappeared  in  the  .scholar.  And  with  the 
works  which  were  tlie  results  of  his  scholarship  before  us,  we  cannot 
regret  the  loss  of  that  we  never  knew,  when  it  would  mean  the  sacrifice 
of  much  the  value  of  which  we  partly  recognize. 


CHAPTER  III 

Ckiticism  :     The  Observations  on  the  F^verie  Queene  op  Spenser 

1754-1762 

Warton  did  not  immediately  find  liimself  in  another  field.  He 
undertook  a  number  of  different  kinds  ot  work  at  this  time,  and  either 
partly  or  wholly  abandoned  each.  British  antiquities  claimed  his  atten- 
tion, and  this  interest  produced  the  Description  of  .  .  .  Winchester;^ 
the  study  of  mediseval  antiquity  resulted  in  a  project  merely — that  of 
collaborating  with  his  brother  in  a  historj'  of  the  revival  of  learning," — 
but  it  bore  fruit  later;  as  a  result  of  his  interest  in  the  classics  he  planned 
translations  of  Homer  and  Apollonius  Rhodius;  the  Obscrvatious  on  the 
Faerie  Queene  was  the  commencement  of  a  larger  plan  of  writing  obser- 
vations on  the  best  of  Spenser's  work. 

The  hand  of  the  poet  is  as  evident  as  that  of  the  scholar  in  the 
Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  of  Spenser.^  Warton 's  love  for 
Spenser  and  his  poetical  enthusiasm  were  here  first  turned  to  criticism, 
but  of  a  sort  unknown  before.  And  the  secret  of  the  new  quality  is  to 
be  found  in  this  poetical  enthusiasm  of  the  writer  which  enabled  him  to 
study  the  poem  from  its  own  point  of  view,  not  hampered  by  artificial, 
pseudo-classical  standards  of  which  the  poet  had  known  nothing,  but 
with  a  sj'mpathetie  appreciation  of  his  literary  models,  the  spirit  of  his 
age,  his  heritage  of  romance  and  chivalry,  and  the  whole  many-coloured 
life  of  the  middle  ages.  These  things  Warton  was  able  to  see  and  to 
reveal  not  with  the  eighteenth  century  prejudice  against,  and  ignorance 
of,  the  Gothic,  but  with  the  understanding  and  long  familiarity  of  the 
real  lover  of  Spenser. 

^A  Description  of  the  City,  College  and  Cathedral  of  Winchester.  .  .  .  The 
whole  illustrated  with  .  .  .  particulars,  collected  from  a  manuscript  of  A.  Wood. 
London,  n.  d.  [1750]   12°. 

-Select  Epistles  of  Angelus  Politianus,  Desiderius  Erasmus,  Hugo  Grotius, 
and  others,  with  notes  of  such  importance  as  to  constitute  a  history  of  the  revival 
of  learning.  Perhaps  this  was  abandoned  because  of  the  plan  of  their  mutual 
friend,  Collins,  to  publish  a  History  of  the  Restoration  of  Learning  under  Leo  the 
Tenth.     See  WooU,  op.  cit.,  p.  29  and  Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  361,  note  x. 

^London,  1754.  Second  edition,  corrected  and  enlarged,  2  vols.  1762.  Refer- 
ences are  to  the  third  edition,  2  vols.,  1807. 

27 


38  THOMAS  WABTON  [38 

The  result  of  Wurton's  combiiifd  poetical  enthusiasm  and  scholarly 
study  of  SpcnstT  was  that  he  produml  in  the  Observations  on  the  Faerie 
Qtiirne  the  first  important  piece  of  niO(h'rn  historical  criticism  in  the  field 
of  English  literature.  By  the  variety  of  its  new  tenets  and  the  definitive- 
ness  of  its  revolt  against  tlie  pseudo-classical  criticism  by  rule,  it  marks 
the  Ijcpinnintr  of  a  new  school.  Out  of  the  turmoil  of  the  quarrel  between 
the  'ancients'  and  the  'moderns'  the  pseudo-classical  compromise  had 
emerged.  The  'moderns',  by  admitting  and  apologizing  for  a  degree  of 
barbarity  and  uncouthne.ss  in  even  their  greatest  poets,  had  established 
tlieir  right  to  a  secure  and  rei)utahle  ])lace  in  the  assembly  of  immortals, 
altliougli  on  tlie  very  questionable  ground  of  conformity  with  the  ancients 
and  by  submitting  to  be  judged  by  rules  wliich  had  not  determined  their 
development.  It  was  thus  by  comparisons  with  the  ancients  that  Drydeu 
had  found  Spenser's  verse  harmonious  but  his  design  imperfect;*  it  was 
in  tlie  light  of  the  classical  rules  for  epic  poetry  that  Addison  had  praised 
Paradise  Lost/'  and  that  Steele  had  wislied  an'Encomium  of  Spencer  "'also. 

Impossible  as  was  the  task  of  reconciling  literature  partly  romantic 
and  modern  with  classical  and  ancient  standards,  the  critics  of  a  rational- 
istic age  did  not  hesitate  to  accomplish  it;  common  sense  was  the  pseudo- 
classical  handmaiden  tluit  justified  the  rules,  methodized  nature, 
standardized  critical  taste,  and  restrained  the  'Euthusiastick  Spirit"  and 
the  je  ne  sais  qvoi  of  the  school  of  taste.  The  task  was  a  hard  one,  and 
the  pseudo-classical  position  dangerous  and  ultimately  untenable.  A 
more  extended  study  of  literary  history — innocuously  begun  by  Rymer' — 
and  an  enlightened  freedom  from  prejudice  would  show  at  the  same  time 
the  inadequacy  of  the  rules  and  the  possibility  of  arriving  at  sounder 
critical  standards. 

The.se  are  the  two  principal  gifts  that  Thomas  Warton  had  with 
which  he  revolutionizeil  criticism  :  intelligent  independence  to  throw  off 
the  bondage  of  the  rules,  and  broad  knowledge  to  supply  material  for 
juster  criteria.  When  he  said,  'It  is  absurd  to  think  of  judging  either 
Ariosto  or  Spenser  by  precepts  whicli  they  did  not  attend  to,'*  he  not 
merely  asserted  their  right  to  be  judged  by  Gotliic  or  'romantic',  as  op- 
poseti  to  jjseudo-elassical,  standards,  but  sounded  the  death-knell  of  criti- 
cism b}'  rule,  and  the  bugle-note  of  the  modern  seliool.  When,  in  the  same 
critical  work,  and  even  more  impressively  in  two  later  ones,^  he  brought 

*Essay  on  Satire. 
^Spectator,  Jan.  to  May,  1712. 
'^Spectalor,  No.  540. 

^A  Short  I'inv  of  Tragedy,  1693.     See  Chapter  V. 
'Obsen'alions.    I,  p.  21. 

"Hist.  Eiig.  Poetry,  1774,  1778,  1781.     Milton's  Poems  upon  Several  Occasions. 
1783. 


39]  ...        CRITICISM  ...  39 

to  bear  upon  the  subject  in  hand  a  rich  store  of  ideas  and  illustrnlions 
drawn  from  many  literatures — Latin,  Greek,  Italian,  French,  and  English 
in  its  obscure  as  well  as  its  more  familiar  eras, — he  rendei'ed  an  even 
more  important  service  on  the  side  of  constructive  criticism. 

Warton's  Obsiri'atioiis  is  connected  not  only  with  the  history  of 
critical  theory  in  the  eighteenth  centurj^  but  also  with  what  is  called 
the  Spenserian  revival.  It  was  partly  the  culmination  of  one  of  several 
related  movements  tending  toward  the  restoration  of  the  older  English 
classics.  While  Chaucer  was  slowly  winning  a  small  circle  of  appre- 
eiators;  Shakespeare,  from  ignorantly  apologetic  admiration  and  garbled 
staging,  through  serious  study  and  intelligent  comprehension,  was  coming 
into  his  own ;  and  Milton  was  attaining  a  vogue  that  left  its  mark  on  the 
new  poetry :  the  Spenserian  revival  was  simultaneously  preparing  to 
exert  an  even  greater  influence.  Altliough  Spenser  was  never  witliout 
a  select  circle  of  readers,  that  circle  was  small  and  coldly  critical  during 
the  pseudo-classical  period  when  his  principal  charm  was  that  which  his 
moral  afforded  readers  who  held  that  the  purpose  of  poetry  was  to 
instruct.  Jlost  readers  assented  to  Jonson's  dictum  that  Spenser  'writ 
no  language'  without  attending  to  the  caveat  tliat  followed,  'Yet  I  would 
have  him  read  for  his  matter. '  The  difficulties  of  his  language,  the  tire- 
someness of  his  stanza,'"  the  unclassical  imperfection  of  his  design,  and 
the  extravagance  of  the  adventures  too  often  obscured  even  tlie  beauty 
of  his  moral.  Therefore  it  was  after  a  pi'etty  general  neglect  of  his 
poetry  that  tlie  eighteentli  century  saw  a  species  of  Spenserian  imitation 
arise  which  showed  to  what  low  ebb  the  study  of  Spenser  had  sunk.  The 
first  of  these  imitators  eitlier  ignorantly  fancied  that  any  arrangement 
of  from  six  to  ten  iambic  pentameter  lines  caj)i)ed  with  an  Alexandrine, 
with  distinctly  Popeian  cadence  and  a  sjjrinkling  of  'I  ween',  'I  weet' 
and  'whilom'  by  way  of  antiquated  diction,  could  pass  for  Spenserian 
verse,"  or  followed  the  letter  of  the  stanza  closely  enough,  but  failed  to 

'"Hughes,  Rciiiarks  on  the  Fairy  Queen  prefixed  to  Spenser's  ll'orl.^s,  2nd. 
ed.     1750.    I,  p.  Ixvii. 

"Prior:  Ode  to  the  Queen,  'irilten  in  imitation  of  S/'cnser's  Style.  1706. 
Preface.  Whitehead:  Vision  of  Solomon,  1739,  and  two  Odes  to  the  Hon.  Charles 
To'LOisend.  Boyse  :  The  Olizes  an  Heroic  Ode,  etc.  in  the  stanca  of  Spenser 
(ababcdcdee)  1736-7.  Vision  of  Patience:  an  Allegorical  Poem;  Psalm  XLH:  In 
imitation  of  the  Style  of  S/'enser  (ababcc,  no  .Mexandrine)  1740.  Blacklock: 
Hymn  to  Divine  Love,  and  Philantheus  (ababbcc)  1746.  T.  Warton,  Sr. :  Philan- 
der (ababcc)  1748.  Lloyd:  Progress  of  Enz-y  (ababcdcdd)  1751.  Sniitli :  Thales 
(ababbccc)  1751.  See  W.  L.  Phelps:  Beginnings  of  the  English  Romantic  Move- 
ment. Boston,  1902.  Ch.  on  Spenserian  Revival,  and  .Appendix  I,  for  a  more 
complete  list. 


40  THOMAS  WARTON  [40 

take  their  model  seriously,  and  misapplied  it  to  vulgar  burlesque,  social 
and  politieal  satire,  and  mere  moralizing.'-  Tluir  ignorance  of  the  poet 
whom  tliey  professed  to  imitate  is  marked.  Often  tliey  knew  him  only 
through  Prior's  imitations;  usually  their  attempts  at  antiquated  diction 
betray  tliem.'^  Occasionally,  as  in  the  case  of  Shenstone,  a  study  of 
Spenser  followed  imitation  of  him,  and  led  to  a  new  attitude,  changes  in 
the  imitation,  and  finally,  apparently,  to  an  admiration  tliat  he  neither 
understood  nor  cared  to  admit.'* 

Of  course  by  far  the  best  of  the  Spenserian  imitators  was  James 
Thomson,  whose  work  was  tlie  first  to  rise  above  tlie  merely  imitative  and 
to  have  an  independent  value  as  creative  poetry.     Althougli  his  Advcr- 

"Pope :  The  Alley,  date  unknown,  an  exercise  in  versification,  and  ill-natured 
burlesque.  Croxall:  Two  Original  Cantos  of  the  Fairy  Queen.  1713  and  1714. 
Akenside:  The  Virtuoso,  1737,  mild  satire.  G.  West:  Abuse  of  Travelling,  1739, 
satire.  Cambridge:  ^rf/iimasf,  1742-50,  a  clever  parody.  Shenstone:  The  School- 
mistress, 1742,  satirical.  Pitt:  The  Jordan,  1747,  vulgar  burlesque.  Ridley:  Psyche, 
1747,  moral  allegory.  Mendez:  The  Seasons,  1751,  Squire  of  Dawes,  1748-58. 
Thomson:    Castle  of  Indolence,  1748.     See  also  Phelps,  as  above. 

"Such  slips  as  'nor  ceasen  he  from  study'  and  'he  would  oft  ypine'  in  Aken- 
side's  I'irtuoso  and  even  Thomson's  note.  "The  letter  y  is  frequently  placed  in 
the  beginning  of  a  word  by  Spenser  to  lengthen  it  a  syllable ;  and  en  at  the  end 
of  a  word  for  the  same  reason.'    Glossary  to  the  Castle  of  Indolence. 

'*!  cannot  agree  with  Professor  Phelps  that,  'as  people  persisted  in  admiring 
The  Schoolmistress  for  its  own  sake,  he  finally  consented  to  agree  with  them, 
and  in  later  editions  omitted  the  commentary  explaining  that  the  whole  thing  was 
done  in  jest'.  The  Beginning  of  the  English  Romantic  Movement,  p.  66.  On  the 
contrary,  it  seems  pretty  clear  that  although  Shenstone  had  probably  not  come  to 
any  very  profound  appreciation  of  the  older  poet,  his  admiration  for  him  became 
more  and  more  serious,  but  that  he  lacked  the  courage  of  his  convictions,  and 
conformed  outwardly  with  a  public  opinion  wholly  ignorant  of  Spenser.  Two 
later  letters  of  Shenstone's  indicate  pretty  clearly  that  it  was  he,  and  not  'the 
people",  whose  taste  for  Spenser  had  developed.  In  November,  1745,  he  wrote  to 
Graves  (to  whom  he  had  written  of  his  early  contempt)  that  he  had  read  Spenser 
once  again  and  'added  full  as  much  more  to  my  School-inistrcss,  in  regard  to 
number  of    lines;    something  in  point  of   matter   (or  manner  rather),  ivhich  does 

not  displease  me.    I  would  be  glad  if  Mr.  were,  upon  your  request,  to  give 

his  opinion  of  particulars,'  etc.  Evidently  the  judgment  was  unfavorable,  for  he 
wrote  the  next  year,  'I  thank  you  for  your  perusal  of  that  trivial  poem.  If  I  were 
going  to  print  it,  I  should  give  way  to  your  remarks  implicitly,  and  would  not 
dare  to  do  otherwise.  But  so  long  as  I  keep  it  in  manuscript,  you  will  pardon  my 
silly  prejudices,  if  I  chuse  to  read  and  shew  it  with  the  addition  of  most  of  my 
new  stanzas.  I  own,  I  have  a  fondness  for  several,  imagining  them  to  be  more  in 
Spenser's  way,  yet  more  independent  on  the  antique  phrase,  than  any  part  of  the 
poem;  and,  on  that  account,  I  cannot  yet  prevail  on  myself  to  banish  them  entirely; 
but  were  I  to  print,  I  should  (with  some  reluctance)  give  way  to  your  sentiments.' 
Shenstone's  Works.     1777.     Ill,  pp.  105-6. 


41]  CRITICISM  41 

tisement  and  a  few  burlesque  touclies  throughout  the  poem  are  evidence 
of  the  influence  of  the  Schoolmistress  and  of  the  prevailing  attitude 
toward  Spenser,  Thomson  went  further  than  mere  external  imitation 
and  reproduced  something  of  the  melody  and  atmosphere  of  the  Fairy 
Queen.  Thus  poetical  enthusiasm  began  the  Spenserian  revival;  it 
remained  for  a  great  critical  enthusiasm  to  vindicate  the  source  of  tliis 
inspiration  and  to  establish  it  on  the  firm  basis  of  scholarly  study  and 
intelligent  appreciation. 

The  first  attempt  at  anything  like  an  extended  criticism  of  the 
Fairy  Queen  was  in  the  two  essays  On  Allegorical  Poetry  and 
Remarks  on  the  Fairy  Queen  which  prefaced  John  Hughes's  edition 
of  Spenser's  works  in  1715,  the  first  eighteenth  century  edition."  Steele, 
in  the  540th  Spectator,  three  year  sbefore,  had  desired  an  'Encomium  of 
Spencer',  'that  charming  author',  like  Addison's  Milton  papei's,  but 
nothing  further  than  his  own  meagre  hints  was  forthcoming.  And 
Hughes's  attitude,  like  that  of  the  imitators,  was  wholly  apologetic. 

Hughes  seems  almost  to  have  caught  a  glimpse  of  the  promised  land 
when  he  refused  to  examine  the  Fairy  Queen  by  the  classical  rules  for 
epic  poetrj',  saying:  'As  it  is  plain  the  Author  never  design 'd  it  by 
those  Rules,  I  think  it  ought  rather  to  be  consider 'd  as  a  Poem  of  a  par- 
ticular kind,  describing  in  a  Series  of  Allegorical  Adventures  or  Episodes 
the  most  noted  Virtues  and  Vices :  to  compare  it  therefore  with  the 
Models  of  Antiquity,  wou  'd  be  like  drawing  a  Parallel  between  the  Roman 
and  the  Gothick  Architecture.'"  At  first  sight  one  is  inclined  to  think 
this  very  near  to  Warton's  revolutionary  dictum,  but  the  bungling  way 
in  which  he  spoiled  the  effect  of  this  striking  statement  by  preparing  in 
advance  a  set  of  pseudo-classical  and  misfit  standards  to  apply  as  he 
exposed  the  unsuitability  of  the  old,  merely  by  the  substitution  of  allegory 
for  epic,  shows  that  he  was  a  true  pseudo-classicist  after  all.  He  could 
not,  nor  would,  throw  off  his  allegiance  to  the  ancients.  If  the  Fairy 
Queen  could  not  be  considered  as  an  epic,  it  could  be  judged  as  an 
allegory,  the  rules  of  which,  though  not  described  by  the  ancients,  were 
easily  determinable.  And  in  attempting  to  set  forth  the  rules  for 
allegorical  poetry,  he  tried  to  conform  to  the  spirit  of  the  classical  critics 
as  he  understood  it,  and  to  illustrate  his  subject  by  examples  from 
classical  poets.  Nevertheless  he  felt  some  reluctance  in  introducing  a 
subject  which  was  'something  out  of  the  way,  and  not  expressly  treated 

■'And  the  first  attempt  at  an  annotated  edition.  Spenser's  Works,  to  which  is 
prefix'd  .  .  .  an  Essay  on  Allegorical  Poetry  by  Mr.  Hughes.  6  vols.  London, 
1715.  Second  edition,  1750.  There  is  a  second  preface,  Reuiarks  on  the  Fairy 
Queen.    References  are  to  the  second  edition. 

'^Remarks  on  the  Fairy  Queen.     I,  p.  xliii. 


42  THOMAS  WARTON 


[42 


upon  l>v  tlios."  wlio  havi-  laid  down  Rules  for  the  Art  of  Poetry.'" 
llll^'ll.•s"'s  i.lcas  of  wliat  slioiild  constitute  successfid  allegory  were  there- 
fore embodied  in  his  Kssay  un  AlUgorUul  Poetry,  by  the  uncertain  light 
of  which  the  critic  hoped  'uot  only  to  discover  many  Beauties  in  the 
Fdini  Qurin,  but  likewise  to  excuse  some  of  its  Irregularities.'" 

Iliigii.-s  tlid  not,  however,  yield  to  the  spell  of  'magic  Spenser's 
wildlv-\variiled  .song."  While  he  admitted  that  his  fable  gave  'the 
greatest  Sco|)e  to  that  Range  of  Fancy  which  was  so  remarkably  his 
Talent ■'"  and  that  his  plan,  though  not  well  chosen,  was  at  least  well 
execute.l  and  adapted  to  his  talent,  he  apologized  for  and  excused  both 
fable  and  plan  on  the  score  of  the  Italian  models  which  he  followed,  and 
the  remnants  of  the  'old  Gothic  Chivalry"  wliicli  yet  survived.  The  only 
praise  he  could  give  the  poem  was  wholly  pseudo-classical, — for  the  moral 
and  ditlaetic  bent  which  the  poet  had  contrived  to  give  the  allegory,^" 
and  for  some  fine  passages  where  the  author  'rises  above  himself  and 
imitates  the  ancients.-'  In  spite  of  his  statement  that  the  Fairy  Queen 
was  uot  to  be  examined  by  the  strict  rules  of  epic  poetry,  he  could  not 
free  himself  from  that  bondage,  and  the  most  of  his  essay  is  taken  up 
with  a  discussion  of  the  poem  in  the  light  of  the  rules.  Moreover  Hughes 
was  but  ill-equipped  for  his  task :  he  failed  even  to  realize  that  a  great 
field  of  literary  history  must  be  thoroughly  explored  before  the  task  of 
elucidating  Spenser  could  be  intelligently  undertaken,  and  that  genuine 
enthusiasm  for  the  poet  could  alone  arouse  much  interest  in  him.  These 
are  the  reasons  why  nearly  forty  ye'ars  elapsed  before  the  edition  was 
reprinted,  and  why  it  failed  to  give  a  tremendous  impetus  to  the 
Spenserian  revival.  Yet,  notwithstanding  its  defects,  it  is  extremely 
im])ortant  that  Hughes  should  have  undertaken  at  all  the  editing  of  so 
neglected  a  poet.--     It  is  a  straw  that  points  the  direction  of  the  wind. 

The  next  attempt  at  Spenserian  criticism  was  a  small  volume  of 
Remarks  on  Spenser's  Poems  and  on  Milton's  Paradise  Regained,  pub- 
lished anonymously  in  1734,  and  soon  recognized  as  the  work  of  Dr. 
Jortin,  a  classical  scholar  of  some  repute.  This  is  practically  valueless 
as  a  piece  of  criticism.     But  Jortin  was  at  least  parth'  conscious  of  his 

'''Essay  on  Allegorical  Poetry,  I,  p.  xxi. 

'^Remarks  on  the  Fairy  Queen,  I,  p.  xlii. 

'»/6i(/.  I.  p.  xliv. 

-"Ibid.  I,  p.  xl.     Essay  on  Allegorical  Poetry. 

^'Ibid.  I,  p.  1. 

=-The  neglect  of  Spenser  is  licst  shown  by  the  few  editions  of  either  the  Fairy 
Queen  or  tlie  complete  works  which  had  appeared  since  the  first  three  books  of 
the  former  were  pul)lished  in  1590.  Faerie  Queene,  1st.  ed.  4to.  1590-6:  2nd,  1596; 
3rd,  fol.,  1609;  Birch  ed.  3  vols.  4to.  1751.  Poetical  Works,  ist  fol.  ed.  1611; 
2nd,  1617-18;  3rd.  1679.    Hughes,  ist  ed.  1715,  2nd,  1750. 


43]  CRITICISM  43 

failure  and  of  a  reason  for  it,  though  he  was  more  auxious  to  liavc  the 
exact  text  determined  by  a  'collation  of  Editions,  and  by  comparing  the 
Author  with  himself  than  to  furnish  an  interpretive  criticism;  and  he 
acknowledged  himself  unwilling  to  bestow  the  necessary~time  and  applica- 
tion for  the  work,-'' — a  gratifying  acknowledgement  of  the  fact  tliat  no 
valuable  work  could  be  done  in  this  field  without  sj)ecial  preparation 
for  it. 

And  when  Thomas  Warton  was  able  to  bring  this  special  prepara- 
tion for  the  first  time  to  the  study  of  the  Fairy  Queen,  he  produced  a 
revolution  in  criticism.  Freed  from  the  tyranny  of  the  rules  by  the 
perception  of  their  limitations,  he  substituted  untried  aveimes  of 
approach  and  juster  standards  of  criticism,  and  revealed  beauties  which 
could  never  have  been  discovered  with  the  old  restrictions.  That  he 
should  be  witliout  trace  of  pseudo-classicism  is  something  we  cannot 
expect;  but  tliat  his  general  critical  method  aiui  princijdes  are  ultimately 
irreconcilable  with  even  the  most  generous  interpretation  of  that  term 
is  a  conclusion  one  cannot  escape  after  a  careful  study  of  the  Observa- 
tions on  fhe  Fairy  Queen. 

Briefly,  the  causes  of  Warton 's  superiority  over  all  previous  critics 
of  Spenser,  the  reasons  why  he  became  through  this  piece  of  critical 
writing  the  founder  of  a  new  kind  of  criticism,  are  four.  First,  he 
recognized  the  inadequacy  of  the  classical  rules,  as  interpreted  by  Boileau 
and  other  modern  commentators,  as  standards  for  judging  modern 
literature,  and  declared  his  independence  of  them  and  his  intention  of 
following  new  methods  based  upon  the  belief  that  the  author's  purpose  is 
at  least  as  important  a  subject  for  critical  study  as  the  critic's  theories 
and  that  imagination  is  as  important  a  factor  in  creative  literature  as 
reason.  Second,  he  introduced  the  modern  historical  method  of  criticism 
by  recognizing  that  no  work  of  art  could  be  independently  judged, 
isolated  from  the  conditions  under  which  it  was  produced,  without 
reference  to  the  influences  which  determined  its  character,  and  without 
considering  its  relation  to  other  literatures.  In  taking  this  broad  view 
of  his  subject,  Warton  was,  of  course,  recognizing  the  necessity  for  a 
comparative  study  of  literature.  In  the  third  place,  and  as  a  conse- 
quence of  this  independence  and  this  greater  breadth  of  view,  Warton 
understood  more  fully  than  his  contemporaries  the  true  relation  between 
classical  and  modern  literature,  understood  that  the  English  writers  of 
the  boasted  Augustan  age,  in  renouncing  their  heritage  from  the  middle 
ages,  had  deprived  themselves  of  the  qualities  which  alone  could  have 
redeemed  their  desiccated  pseudo-classicism.  And  last,  Warton  made  a 
place  in  criticism  for  the  reader's  spontaneous  delight  and  enthusiasm. 

-'Jortin's  conclusion  quoted  in  Nichols's  Literary  Anecdotes,  II,  p.  S3.  H.  E. 
Cory  says  nothing  of  Jortin's  Remarks  in  his  monograph,  The  Critics  of  Edmund 
Spenser,  Univ.  of  California  Pub.  in  Mod.  Phil.  II ;  2,  pp.  71-182. 


44  THOMAS  WARTON  [44 

Few  critics  of  tlie  eighteenth  century  recognized  any  difference 
botwctMi  th<'ir  own  rules  and  jiractipe  and  those  of  the  ancients,  or  saw  the 
need  for  niodiTn  standards  for  judging  modern  poems.  Just  here  comes 
the  important  and  irreparable  break  between  Warton  and  his  contem- 
poraries. While  Hughes  and  the  rest  attempted  to  justify  Spenser  by 
pointing  out  conformities  to  the  rules=*  where  they  existed  or  might  be 
fancied,  and  condemned  his  practice  when  they  failed  to  find  any,  Warton 
was  at  some  pains  to  show  that  Hughes  failed  and  that  such  critics  must 
fail  because  their  critical  method  was  wrong."  He  pointed  out  that  the 
Fairy  Qiuai  cannot  be  judged  by  rule,  that  the  'plan  and  conduct'  of 
Spenser's  poem  'is  highly  exceptionable',  'is  confused  and  irregular',  and 
has  'no  general  unity';-"  it  fails  completely  when  examined  by  the  rules. 
To  Warton  this  clearly  showeil  the  existence  of  another  standard  of 
criticism — not  the  Aristotelian,  but  the  poet's:  Spenser  had  not  tried  to 
write  like  Homer,  but  like  Ariosto;  his  standard  was  romantic,  not 
cla.ssical ;  and  he  was  to  be  judged  by  what  he  tried  to  do. 

Warton 's  declaration  of  independence  of  pseudo-classical  criticism 
was  a  conscious  revolt;  yet  it  was  one  to  which  he  made  some  effort  to 
win  the  as.sent  of  his  contemporaries  by  conceding  that  Spenser's  frequent 
extravagances"  did  violate  the  rules  approved  by  an  age  that  took  pride 
in  its  critical  taste.  His  desire  to  engage  their  interest,  however,  neither 
succeeded  in  that  purpose  nor  persuaded  him  that  those  rules  were 
properly  applied  to  poems  written  in  ignorance  of  them.  There  is  no 
uncertainty,  no  coniprniiiise  with  pseudo-classical  criticism  in  the  flat 
defiance,  'it  is  absurd  to  think  of  judging  either  Ariosto  or  Spenser  by 
precepts  which  they  did  not  attend  to.'-^ 

Having  thus  condemned  the  accepted  standards  as  inadequate  for  a 
just  criticism  of  the  Fairy  Qiiccn,  Warton 's  next  purpose  was  to  find 
those  by  which  it  could  be  properly  judged:  not  the  rules  of  which  the 
poet  was  ignorant,  but  the  literature  with  which  he  was  familiar.  He 
recognized  quite  clearly  a  distinction  between  a  classical  and  a  romantic 
poet,  and  accounted  for  it  by  a  difference  of  circumstances.  Warton 's 
even  then  extensive  knowledge  of  the  neglected  periods  of  earlier  English 
literature  gave  him  a  power  that  most  of  his  contemporaries  lacked  and 

2*Dryden  had  done  the  same  thing  in  the  Dedication  to  the  Translation  of 
Juvenal  by  pointing  out  how  the  character  of  Prince  Arthur  'shines  throughout 
the  whole  poem,'  and  Warton  took  issue  squarely  with  him  on  the  point  and  denied 
any  such  unity.  See  Observations,  I,  p.  lo-ll.  Addison  used  the  same  method  in  his 
papers  on  Paradise  Lost.  Beni  was  probably  the  originator  of  this  sort  of  mis- 
applied criticism  in  his  comparison  of  Tasso  with  Homer  and  Virgil.    I,  p.  3. 

-^Ibid.  I,  p.  II  S. 

'"Ibid.  I,  p.  17. 

"Ibid.  I.  p.  18. 

''Ibid,  I,  p.  21. 


45]  CRITICISM  45 

enabled  him  to  see  that  Spenser's  peculiarities  were  those  of  his  age, 
that  the  'knights  and  damsels,  the  tournaments  and  enchantments,  of 
Spenser'  were  not  oddities  but  the  familiar  and  admired  features  of  ro- 
mance, a  prevailing  literary  form  of  the  age,  and  that  'the  fashion  of 
the  times'  determined  Spenser's  purpose  of  becoming  a  'romantic  Poct.'-^ 

Warton  determined  therefore  not  only  to  judge  but  to  praise  Spen- 
ser as  a  romantic'"  poet.  He  found  that  as  the  characteristic  appeal  of 
pseudo-classical  poetry  was  to  the  iutellect,  to  the  reason,  romantic 
poetry  addressed  itself  to  the  feelings,  to  the  imagination.  Its  excel- 
lence, therefore,  consisted  not  in  design  and  proportion,  but  in  interest 
and  variety  of  detail.  The  poet's  business  was 'to  engage  the  fancy,  and 
interest  the  attention  by  bold  and  striking  images,  in  the  formation,  and 
the  disposition  of. which,  little  labour  or  art  was  applied.  The  various 
and  marvelous  were  the  chief  sources  of  delight '.'•  Hence  Spenser 
had  ransacked  'reality  and  romance',  'truth  and  fiction'  to  adorn  his 
'fairy  structure',  and  "Warton  revelled  in  the  result,  in  its  very  form- 
lessness and  richness,  which  he  thoiight  preferable,  in  a  romantic  poem, 
to  exactness.  'Exactness  in  his  poem,'  he  said,  'would  have  been  like 
the  cornice  which  a  painter  introduced  in  the  grotto  of  Calypso.  Spen- 
ser's beauties  are  like  the  flowers  in  Paradise. '"- 

Wlien  beauties  thus  transcend  nature,  delight  goes  beyond  reason. 
Warton  did  not  shrink  from  the  logical  result  of  giving  rein  to  imagina- 
tion ;  he  was  willing  to  recognize  the  romantic  quest  for  beauties  beyond 
the  reach  of  art,  to  sacrifice  reason  and  'nature  methodiz'd'  in  an 
exaltation  of  a  higher  quality  which  rewarded  the  reader  with  a  higher 
kind  of  enjojTnent.  'If  the  Fairy  Queen,'  he  said,  'be  destitute  of  that 
arrangement  and  seconomy  which  epic  severity  requires,  yet  we  scarcely 
regret  the  loss  of  these,  while  their  place  is  so  amply  supplied  by  some- 
thing which  more  powerfully  attracts  us:  something  which  engages  the 
affections,  the  feelings  of  the  heart,  rather  than  the  cold  approbation  of 
the  head.  If  there  be  any  poem  whose  graces  please,  because  they  are 
situated  beyond  the  reach  of  art,  and  where  the  force  and  faculties  of 
creative  imagination^'  delight,  because  they  are  unassisted  and  unre- 

-^Ibid.  II,  p.  -2. 

■"■"Warton  used  the  word  romantic  as  a  derivative  of  romance,  implying  the 
characteristics  of  the  medixval  romances,  and  I  have  used  the  word  frequently  in 
this  chapter  with  that  meaning. 

^'^Ibid.  I,  p.  22. 

^-Ibid.  I,  p.  23. 

^^Without  the  same  precision  in  nomenclature  but  with  equal  clearness  of  idea 
Warton  distinguished  between  creative  and  imaginative  power  in  exactly  the  same 
way  that  Coleridge  diiTerentiated  imagination  and  fancy.  He  did  not  compose  exact 
philosophical  definitions  of  the  two  qualities,  but  in  a  careful  contrast  between  the 
poetic  faculties  of  Spenser  and  Ariosto,  he  made  the  same  distinction.     Spenser's 


46  THOMAS  WARTON  [46 

straiiioil  by  those  of  deliberate  judgment,  it  is  this.  In  reading  Spenser, 
if  the  eritic  is  not  satisfied,  yet  tlie  reader  is  transported.''* 

When  Warton  thus  made  a  phiee  for  transport  in  a  critical  dis- 
course, he  had  parted  company  witli  his  contemjjoraries  and  opened 
the  way  for  the  whole  romantic  exaltation  of  feeling.  He  had  turned 
from  Dr.  Jolinson,  who  condemned  'all  power  of  fancy  over  reason'  as 
a  "dctrrec  of  insanity ',''  and  faced  toward  Blake,  who  exalted  the 
imagination  anil  called  reason  the  only  evil.""  Every  propriety  of  Queen 
Anne  criticism  had  now  been  violated.  Not  satisfied  with  condemning 
all  previous  Spenserian  criticism  as  all  but  nonsense,  Warton  dared  to 
place  the  uncritical  reailer's  delight  above  the  critic's  deliberate  dis- 
approval, and  tlieii  to  commend  that  enthusiasm  and  the  beauties  that 
aroused  it.  In  repudiating  the  pseudo-classical  rules,  Warton  enunciated 
two  revolutionary  dicta:  there  are  other  critical  standards  than  those 
of  Boileau  and  the  ancients  (save  the  mark!)  ;  there  are  other  poetical 
beauties  than  tho.se  of  Pope  and  'nature  methodiz'd.' 

Revolutionary  as  he  was  in  his  enjoyment  of  Spenser's  fable,  War- 
ton  had  not  at  the  time  he  wrote  the  Observations  freed  himself  from 
the  pseudo-classical  theories  of  versification  and  he  agreed  with  his  prede- 
ces.sors  in  his  discussion  of  this  subject.  Altough  he  did  not  feel  the  nine- 
teenth century  romanticist's  entliusiasm  for  Spenser's  versification,  he 
was  nevertiieless  sufficiently  the  poet  to  appreciate  and  to  enjoy  his  suc- 
cess with  it.  'It  is  indeed  surprising,'  he  said,  'that  Spenser  should  exe- 
cute a  poem  of  uncommon  length,  with  so  nuich  spirit  and  ease,  laden  as 
he  was  with  so  many  shackles,  and  embarrassed  with  so  eoniplieated  a 

bondage  of  riming His  sense  and  sound  are  equally  flowing 

and  uninterrupted.'^'  Similarly,  with  respect  to  language,  we  neither 
expect  nor  find  enthusiasm.  Warton  thought  Jonsou  'perhaps  unrea- 
sonable,''" and  found  the  origin  of  his  language  in  the  language  of  his 
age,  as  he  found  the  origin  of  his  design  in  its  romances.    Long  acquaint- 

power,  imagination,  he  described  as  creative,  vital ;  it  endeavours  to  body  forth  the 
unsubstantial,  to  represent  by  visible  and  external  symbols  the  ideal  and  abstracted. 
(II,  p.  77.)  Ariosto's  faculty,  fancy,  he  called  imitative,  lacking  in  inventive  power. 
(I,  p.  308;  II,  p.  78.)  Although  Warton  at  times  applied  the  term  imagination 
loosely  to  both,  there  was  no  confusion  of  ideas ;  when  he  used  both  terms  it  was 
with  the  difference  in  meaning  just  described.  In  speaking  of  the  effect  of  the 
marvels  of  romance  upon  the  poetic  faculty  he  said  they  'rouse  and  invigorate  all 
the  powers  of  imagination'  and  'store  the  fancy  with  .  .  .  images.'     (II,  p.  323.) 

^*Ibid.  I,  p.  24. 

^'•Rassdas.     Ch.  XLIV. 

•'"'H.  C.  Robinson:    Diary.    Ed.  Sadler,  Boston  1870,  II,  p.  43. 

'"Ofcj.  I,  pp.  168-170. 

^*In  his  opinion  that  'Spenser,  in  affecting  the  ancients,  writ  no  language*.  I, 
p.  184. 


47]  CRITICISM  47 

ance  enabled  him  to  read  the  Fairy  Queen  with  ease;  he  denied  that 
Spenser's  language  was  either  so  affected  or  so  obsolete  as  it  was  gener- 
ally supposed,  and  asserted  that  'For  many  stanzas  together  we  may 
frequently  read  him  with  as  much  facility  as  we  can  the  same  number 
of  lines  in  Shakespeare."'  In  his  approval  and  appreciation  of  Spen- 
ser's moral  purpose  Warton  was,  of  course,  nearer  to  his  pseudo-classical 
predecessors  than  to  his  romantic  followers ;  however,  without  relin- 
quishing that  prime  virtue  of  the  old  school,  the  solidity  which  comes 
from  well-establislied  principles,  he  attained  to  new  virtues,  greater  catho- 
licity of  taste  and  flexibility  of  judgment. 

In  seeking  in  the  literature  of  and  before  the  sixteenth  century  and 
in  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  'spacious  times  of  great  Elizabeth' 
for  the  explanation  of  Spenser's  poem — so  far  as  explanation  of  genius 
is  possible — "Warton  was,  as  has  been  said,  laying  the  foundations  of 
modern  historical  criticism.  Some  slight  progress  had  been  made  in  this 
direction  before,  but  without  important  results.  Warton  was  by  no 
means  original  in  recognizing  Spenser's  debt  to  the  Italian  romances 
which  were  so  popular  in  his  day,  and  to  Ariosto  in  particular.  And 
many  critics  agreed  that  he  was  'led  by  the  prevailing  notions  of  his 
age  to  write  an  irregular  and  romantic  poem.'  They,  however,  regarded 
his  age  as  one  of  barbarity  and  ignorance  of  the  rules,  and  its  literature 
as  unworthy  of  study  and  destitute  of  intrinsic  value.  No  critic  before 
Warton  had  realized  the  importance  of  supplementing  an  absolute  by 
an  historical  criticism,  of  reconstructing,  so  far  as  possible,  a  poet's 
environment  and  the  conditions  under  which  he  worked,  in  order  to 
judge  his  poetrj'.  'In  reading  the  works  of  a  poet  who  lived  in  a  remote 
age,'  he  said,  'it  is  necessary  that  we  should  look  back  upon  the  customs 
and  manners  which  prevailed  in  that  age.  We  should  endeavour  to  place 
ourselves  in  the  writer's  situation  and  circumstances.  Hence  we  shall 
become  better  enabled  to  discover  how  his  turn  of  thinking,  and  manner 
of  composing,  were  influenced  by  familiar  appearances  and  established 
objects,  which  are  utterly  different  from  those  with  which  we  are  at 
present  surrounded.'*"  And,  realizing  that  the  neglect  of  these  details 
was  fatal  to  good  criticism,  that  the  'commentator*'  whose  critical  enqui- 

^^Ibid.  I,  p.  185.  This  parallel  does  not  greatly  help  the  case  in  an  age  when 
Attertiury  could  write  to  Pope  that  he  found  'the  hardest  part  of  Chaucer  .  .  .  more 
intelligible'  than  some  parts  of  Shakespeare  and  that  'not  merely  through  the  faults 
of  the  edition,  but  the  obscurity  of  the  writer.'  Pope's  Works,  Elwin-Courthope 
ed.  IX,  p.  26. 

*°Obs.  II,  p.  71. 

■•^Warton  ably  and  sharply  met  Pope's  attack  on  Theobald  for  including  in  his 

edition  of  Shakespeare  a  sample  of  his  sources,  of  ' " All  such  reading  as  never 

was  read",'  and  concluded  'If  Shakespeare  is  worth  reading,  he  is  worth  explain- 


48  THOMAS  WARTON  [48 

ries  are  einploj-ed  on  Spenser,  Jonson,  and  the  rest  of  our  elder  poets, 
will  in  vain  give  specimens  of  his  classical  erudition,  unless,  at  the  same 
time,  he  brings  to  his  work  a  mind  intimately'  acquainted  with  those 
books,  which  tliough  now  forgotten,  were  yet  in  common  use  and  high 
repute  about  the  time  in  which  his  authors  respectively  wrote,  and 
wliicli  tliey  conse(|uently  must  have  read,'*=  he  resolutely  reformed  his 
own  practice. 

Warton  not  only  perceived  the  necessity  of  the  historical  method 
of  studying  the  older  poets,  but  he  had  acquired  what  very  few  of  his 
conteinporarics  had  attained,  sufficient  knowledge  of  the  earlier  English 
literature  to  undertake  such  a  study  of  Spenser.  He  embarked  upon 
the  study  of  the  Fuinj  Queen,  its  sources  and  literary  background,  with 
a  fund  of  knowledge  which,  however  much  later  scholars,  who  have  taken 
up  large  lioldings  in  the  territory  charted  by  that  pioneer,  may  un- 
justly scorn  its  superficiality  or  inexactness,  was  for  that  time  quite 
excejitional,  and  which  could  not  fail  to  illuminate  the  poem  to  the  point 
of  transfiguration.  Every  reader  of  Spenser  had  accepted  his  statement 
that  he  took  Ariosto  as  his  model,  but  no  one  before  Warton  had  re- 
nuirked  another  model,  one  closer  in  respect  of  matter,  which  tlie  poet 
no  doubt  thouglit  too  obvious  to  mention,  the  old  romances  of  chivalry. 
Warton  observed  that  where  Spenser's  plan  is  least  like  Ariosto 's,  it 
most  resembles  the  romances;  that,  although  he  'formed  his  Faerie 
Queene  upon  the  fanciful  plan  of  Ariosto',  he  formed  the  particular 
adventures  of  his  knight  upon  the  romances.  'Spenser's  first  book  is,' 
he  said,  'a  regular  and  precise  imitation  of  such  a  series  of  action  as 
we  frequently  find  in  books  of  chivalry.'*^ 

In  proof  of  Spenser's  indebtedness  to  the  romances  Warton  cited 
the  prevalence  of  romances  of  chivalry  in  his  day,  and  pointed  out 
particular  borrowings  from  this  popular  poetry.  In  the  first  place  he 
insisted  again  and  again  not  only  that  the  'encounters  of  chivalry'  which 
appeared  extraordinary  to  modern  eyes  were  familiar  to  readers  in 
Spenser's  day,**  but  that  the  practices  of  chivalry  were  even  continued 

ing;  and  the  researches  used  for  so  valuable  and  elegant  a  purpose,  merit  the 
thanks  of  genius  and  candour,  not  the  satire  of  prejudice  and  ignorance.'  II,  p.  319. 
In  similar  vein  he  rebuked  such  of  his  own  critics  as  found  his  quotations  from 
the  romances  'trifling  and  uninteresting" :  'such  readers  can  have  no  taste  for 
Spenser.'    I,  p.  91. 

*-Ibid.  II,  pp.  317-18. 

*mid.  I,  p.  26. 

**And  even  later  to  the  time  of  Milton.  Warton  found  Milton's  'mind  deeply 
tinctured  with  romance  reading*  and  his  imagination  and  poetry  affected  thereby. 
I,  p.  257  and  p.  350.  Even  Dryden  wanted  to  write  an  epic  about  Arthur  or  the 
Black  Prince  but  on  the  model  of  Virgil  and  Spenser,  not  Spenser  and  the  romances. 
Essay  on  Satire. 


i 


49]  CRITICISM  49 

to  some  extent.*^  Warton's  close  acquaintance  with  the  literature  of 
the  sixteenth  century  and  before  showed  him  that  the  matter  of  the 
romances  was  common  property  and  liad  permeated  other  works  than 
those  of  mediivval  poets.  He  discovered  that  the  story  of  Ai'thur,  from 
which  Spenser  borrowed  most,  was  so  generally  kno\vn  and  so  great  a 
favourite  that  incidents  from  it  were  made  the  basis  for  entertainment 
of  Elizabeth  at  Kenilworth,*"  and  that  Arthur  and  his  knights  were 
alluded  to  by  writers  so  various  as  Caxton,  Aschani,  Sidney,  Puttenhara, 
Bacon,  and  Jouson  ;■""  that  even  Ariosto''*  himself  borrowed  from  the 
story  of  Arthur.  At  the  same  time  his  first-hand  knowledge  of  the 
romances  enabled  him  to  point  out  among  those  which  most  directly 
influenced  the  Fairy  Queen  Malory's  Morte  Arthur,  the  largest  contrib- 
utor, of  course,  from  which  such  details  as  the  story  of  Sir  Tristram, 
King  Ryence  and  the  Mantle  of  Beards,  the  Holy  Grail,  and  the  Blatant 
Beast  were  drawn;**  Bevis  of  Southampton,  which  furnished  the  inci- 
dent of  the  well  of  marvelous  healing  power  j'^"  the  ballad  of  the  Boy 
and  the  Mantle,  from  the  French  romance,  Le  Court  Mantel,  which  sug- 
gested Spenser's  conceit  of  Florimel's  girdle.^'  Warton  also  carefully 
discussed  Spenser's  fairy  mythologj',  which  supplanted  the  classical 
mythology  as  his  romantic  adventures  replaced    those    of    antiquity, 

*^Obs.  I,  p.  27  and  II,  pp.  71-72.  Warton  cited  Holinshed's  Chronicles  (Stowe's 
contin.)  where  is  an  account  of  a  tourney  for  the  entertainment  of  Queen  Eliza- 
beth, in  which  Fulke  Greville  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  among  others,  entered  the 
lists.     Holin.  Chronicles,  ed.  1808.     IV,  p.  437  ff. 

*'Warton  quotes  Laneham's  'Letter  'wherein  part  of  the  Entertainment  untoo 
the  Queen's  Majesty  at  KiJliineorth  Casll  in  IVanvicksheer  in  this  Soomer's  prog- 
ress, 1575,  is  signified,'  and  Gascoig^e's  Pleasures  of  Kenilworth  Castle,  Works, 
1576.    Obs.  I,  pp.  41.  43- 

<'/birf.  I,  pp.  50-74. 

*mid.  I.  pp.  53-57. 

*^Ibid.  I,  pp.  27-57. 

^"Ibid.  I,  pp.  69-71. 

^^Ibid.  I,  p.  76.  Warton  says  an  'ingenious  correspondent  communicated'  to  him 
this  'old  ballad  or  metrical  romance.'  Part  of  Le  Court  Mantel  he  found  in 
Sainte  Palaye's  Memoires  sur  I'ancienne  Chevalcrie,  1760.  Other  details,  which 
could  not  be  traced  to  particular  romances,  Warton  attributed  to  'a  mind  strongly 
tinctured  with  romantic  ideas.'  One  of  these,  the  custom  of  knights  swearing  on 
their  swords,  Upton  had  explained  as  derived  from  the  custom  of  the  Huns  and 
Goths,  related  by  Jornandes  and  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  but  Warton  pointed  out 
that  it  was  much  more  probably  derived  from  the  more  familiar  romances.  II,  p. 
65.  A  Bodleian  MS.  containing  Sir  Degore  and  other  romances  is  quoted  from 
and  described,  II,  pp.  5-9. 


50  THOMAS  WAKTON  [50 

ascribing  its  origin  to  romance  and  folk-lore  of  Celtic  and  ultimately 
Oriental  origin.'- 

As  in  the  case  of  medieval  romance,  Warton  was  the  first  critic  to 
consider  in  any  detail  Spenser's  indebtedness  to  Chaucer.  Antiqua- 
rians and  a  few  poets  had  been  mildly  interested  in  Chaucer,  but  his 
importance  for  the  study  of  the  origins  of  English  poetry  had  been 
ignored  in  the  prevalent  delusion  that  the  classics  were  the  ultimate 
sources  of  poetry.  Dryden,  to  be  sure,  had  remarked  that  Spenser 
imitated  Chaucer's  language,"  and  subsequent  readers,  including  War- 
ton,  concurred.  But  it  still  remained  for  Warton  to  point  out  that 
Spenser  was  also  indebted  to  Chaucer  for  ideas,  and  to  show  the  extent 
and  nature  of  his  debt  by  collecting  'specimens  of  Spenser's  imitations 
from  Chaucer,  both  of  language  and  sentiment.'"  Without,  of  course, 
attempting  to  exhaust  the  subject,  Warton  collected  enough  parallel 
passages  to  prove  that  Spenser  was  not  only  an  'attentive  reader  and 
professed  admirer',  but  also  an  imitator  of  Chaucer.  For  example,  he 
pointed  out  that  the  list  of  trees  in  the  wood  of  error  was  more  like 
Chaucer's  in  the  Assevihly  of  Foivls  than  like  similar  passages  in  classical 
poets  mentioned  by  Jortin;''^  that  he  had  borrowed  the  magic  mirror 
which  Merlin  gave  Ryence  from  the  Squire's  Tale,'^^  and  from  the  Ro- 
mance of  tlie  Rose,  the  conceit  of  Cupid  dressed  in  flowers.^^  By  a 
careful  comparison  with  Chaucer's  language,  Warton  was  able  to  explain 
some  doubtful  passages  as  weU  as  to  show  Spenser's  draughts  from  'the 
well  of  English  undefiled.' 

One  can  scarcely  overestimate  the  importance  of  Warton 's  evident 
first-hand  knowledge  of  Chaucer  in  an  age  when  he  was  principally 
known  only  through  Dryden 's  and  Pope's  garbled  modernizations,  or 
Milton's  reference  to  him  who 

'left  half-told 

The  story  of  Cambuscan  bold.' 

^^Ibid.  I,  pp.  77-89.  Warton  often  used  the  terms  Celtic  and  Norse  very  loosely 
without  recognizing  the  difference.  Like  Huet  and  Mallet  and  other  students  of 
romance  he  was  misled  by  the  absurd  and  fanciful  ethnologies  in  vogue  in  the  17th 
and  i8th  centuries.  For  his  theory  of  romance  see  his  dissertation  'On  the  Origin 
of  Romantic  Fiction  in  Europe'  prefixed  to  the  first  volume  of  his  History  of 
English  Poetry,  1774. 

'■^Essay  on  Satire.  Dryden  frequently  referred  to  Chaucer  as  Spenser's  mas- 
ter, meaning  in  the  matter  of  language.  See  also  Dedication  of  the  Pastorals  and 
Preface  to  the  Fables. 

"Section  V  'Of  Spenser's  Imitations  from  Chaucer.' 

""In  his  Remarks  on  Spenser's  Poems.    See  Observations  I,  p.  190. 

'■"Ibid.  I,  p.  205.  Warton  showed  many  instances  of  Spenser's  interest  in 
Cambuscan,  including  his  continuation  of  part  of  the  story.     See  also  pp.  210  ff. 

"Ibid.  I,  p.  221. 


51]  CRITICISM  51 

Warton  was  not  satisfied  that  Chaucer  should  be  studied  merely  to 
illustrate  Spenser ;  he  recognized  his  intrinsic  value  as  well,  and  suffered 
his  enthusiasm  for  Chaucer  to  interrupt  the  thread  of  his  criticism  of 
Spenser,  while  he  lauded  and  recommended  to  his  neglectful  age  the 
charms  of  the  older  poet.^'  To  be  sure  his  reasons  for  admiring  Chaucer 
were  somewhat  too  romantic  to  convince  an  age  that  preferred  regular 
beauties;  his  'romantic  arguments',  'wildness  of  painting',  'simplicity 
and  antiquity  of  expression',  though  'pleasing  to  the  imagination'  and 
calculated  to  'transport  us  into  some  fairy  region',  were  certainly  not 
the  qualities  to  attract  Upton  or  Hughes  or  Dr.  Johnson.  Unlike  the 
pseudo-classical  admirers  of  Chaucer,  Warton  held  that  to  read  modern 
imitations  was  not  to  know  Chaucer;  that  to  provide  such  substitutes 
was  to  contribute  rather  to  the  neglect  than  to  the  popularity  of  the 
original.  With  characteristic  soundness  of  scholarship  he  condemned 
the  prevalence  of  translations  because  they  encouraged  'indolence  and 
illiteracy',  displaced  the  originals  and  thus  gradually  vitiated  public 
taste.'^ 

The  study  of  Spenser's  age  yielded  the  third  element  which  Warton 
introduced  into  Spenserian  criticism — the  influence  of  the  mediseval 
moralities  and  allegorical  masques.  Warton 's  study  of  Spenser's  alle- 
gory is  of  quite  another  sort  than  Hughes's  essay.  Instead  of  trying  to 
concoct  a  set  of  a  priori  rules  for  a  kind  of  epic  which  should  find  its 
justification  in  its  moral,  Warton,  as  usual,  was  concerned  with  forms 
of  allegory  as  thej'  actually  existed  and  were  familiar  to  his  poet,  and 
with  the  history  of  allegorical  poetry  in  England.  Without  denying  the 
important  influence  of  Ariosto,  he  pointed  out  that  his  predecessors  had 
erred  in  thinking  the  Orlando  Furioso  a  sufficient  model ;  he  saw  that 
the  characters  of  Spenser's  allegory  much  more  resembled  the  'emblemat- 
ical personages,  visibly  decorated  with  their  proper  attributes,  and  ac- 
tually endued  with  speech,  motion  and  life',""  with  which  Spenser  was 
familiar  upon  the  stage,  than  the  less  symbolical  characters  of  Ariosto. 
Warton  could  support  his  position  by  quoting  references  in  the  Fairy 

^^Warton  found  opportunity  to  express  more  fully  his  enthusiasm  for  Chaucer 
in  a  detailed  study  comparable  to  this  of  Spenser,  in  his  History  of  English  Poetry 
twenty  years  later. 

^^Obs.  I,  pp.  269-71.  Warton  extended  his  criticism  to  translations  of  classical 
authors  as  well.  Of  course  the  greatest  of  the  classicists,  Dryden  and  Johnson, 
realized  the  limits  of  translation,  that  it  was  only  a  makeshift.  See  Preface  to 
translation  of  Ovid's  epistle,  to  Sylvce  and  to  the  Fables,  and  Boswell's  Johnson, 
Hill  ed.  Ill,  p.  36.  But  the  popularity  of  Dryden's  translations  and  the  large 
number  of  translations  and  imitations  that  appeared  during  his  and  succeeding 
generations,  justified  Warton's  criticism. 

^''Obs.  II,  p.  78. 


52  THOMAS  WARTON  l^^ 

Queen  to  masques  and  dumb  shows,"'  aud  by  tracing  somewhat  the  prog- 
ress of  allegory  iu  English  poetry  before  Spenser."-  It  is  characteristic 
that  he  sliouldnot  have  been  satisfied  to  observe  that  allegory  was  popu- 
lar in  Spenser "s  age,  but  that  he  should  wish  to  explain  it  by  a  'retro- 
spect of  English  poetry  from  the  age  of  Spenser.'"  Superficial  and 
hasty  as  this  survey  is,  it  must  have  confirmed  Warton's  opinion  that 
a  thorougli  exploration  of  early  English  poetry  was  needed,  and  so 
anticipated  his  magnum  opus.  And  we  can  find  little  fault  with  its  con- 
clusions, even  when  he  says  that  this  poetry  'principally  consisted  in 
visions  and  allegories',  when  he  could  add  as  a  matter  of  information, 
'there  are,  indeed,  the  writings  of  some  English  poets  now  remaining, 
who  wrote  before  Gowcr  or  Chaucer.' 

In  rejecting  the  conclusions  of  pseudo-classical  criticism,  in  regard- 
ing Spenser  as  the  heir  of  the  middle  ages,  Warton  did  not  by  any 
means  overlook  the  influence  of  the  renaissance,  of  the  classical  revival, 
upon  his  poetry.  His  study  of  the  classical  sources  from  wliieh  Spenser 
embellished  his  plan"^  is  as  careful  and  as  suggestive  as  his  study  of  the 
mediroval  sources ;  it  is  not  only  so  strikingly  new.  His  attack  on  Scali- 
ger,  who  subordinated  a  comparative  method  to  the  demonstration  of 
o  priori  conclusions,  shows  that  he  was  a  sounder  classicist  than  that 
pseudo-classical  leader.  Scaliger,  he  said,  more  than  once  'betrayed  his 
ignorance  of  the  nature  of  ancient  poetry '  f"  he  '  had  no  notion  of  simple 
and  genuine  beauty;  nor  had  ever  considered  the  manners  and  customs 
which  prevailed  in  early  times. '°°  Warton  was  a  true  classicist  in  his 
admiration  for  Homer  and  Aristotle,  and  in  his  recognition  of  them  as 
'the  genuine  and  uncorrupted  sources  of  ancient  poetry  and  ancient 
criticism '  ;*"  but,  as  has  been  said,  he  did  not  make  the  mistake  of  sup- 
posing them  the  sources  of  modern  poetry  and  criticism  as  well. 

"Warton  shows  in  this  essay  an  extraordinarily  clear  recognition  of 
the  relation  between  classical,  medieval  and  modern  literatures,  and  a 
corresponding  adaptation  of  criticism  to  it.     By  a  wide  application  of 

"/6i(/.  II,  pp.  78-81.  'Spenser  expressly  denominates  his  most  exquisite  groupe 
of  allegorical  figures,  the  Maske  of  Cupid.  Thus,  without  recurring  to  conjec- 
ture, his  own  words  evidently  demonstrate  that  he  sometimes  had  representations 
of  this  sort  in  his  eye.' 

''Ibid.  II,  pp.  93-103.  Beginning  with  .Adam  Davy  and  the  author  of  Piers 
Plowman.  Like  Spence,  Warton  recognized  in  Sackville's  Induction  the  nearest 
approach  to  Spenser,  and  a  probable  source  of  influence  upon  him. 

»»/&i"(/.  II,  p.  92. 

"•■•/fcirf.  I,  pp.  92-156. 

"•Ibid.  I,  p.  147. 

"Ibid.  I,  p.  133. 

"Ibid.  I,  p.  I. 


53]  CRITICISM  53 

the  historical  method  he  saw  that  English  poetry  was  the  joint  product 
of  two  principal  strains,  the  ancient  or  classical,  and  the  mediaeval  or 
romantic;  and  that  the  poet  or  critic  who  neglected  either  disclaimed 
half  his  birthright.  The  poetry  of  Spenser's  age,  Warton  perceived, 
drew  from  both  sources.  Although  the  study  of  the  ancient  models  was 
renewed,  the  'romantic  manner  of  poetical  composition  introduced  and 
established  by  the  Provencial  bards'  was  not  suiierseded  by  a  'new  and 
more  legitimate  taste  of  writing.'  And  Warton  as  a  critic  accepted — 
as  Scaliger  would  not — the  results  of  his  historical  study :  he  admired 
and  desired  the  characteristic  merits  of  classical  poetry,  'justness  of 
thought  and  design',  'decorum',  'uniformity',"'  he  'so  far  conformed  to 
the  reigning  maxims  of  modern  criticism,  as  ...  to  recommend  clas- 
sical propriety';'"*  but  he  wished  them  completed  and  adorned  with  the 
peculiar  imaginative  beauties  of  the  'dark  ages',  those  fictions  which 
'rouse  and  in\'igorate  aU  the  powers  of  imagination  [and]  store  the  fancy 
with  those  sublime  and  charming  images,  which  true  poetry  best  delights 
to  display.''" 

The  inevitable  result  of  recognizing  the  relation  between  the  clas- 
sical and  romantic  sources  of  literature  was  contempt  for  pseudo-clas- 
sicism, for  those  poets  and  critics  who  rejected  the  beauties  of  romance 
for  the  less  natural  perfections  approved  by  tlie  classical  and  French 
theorists,  who  aped  the  ancients  withouf  knowing  them  and  despised 
their  own  romantic  ancestry.  The  greatest  English  poets,  Warton  per- 
ceived, were  those  who  combined  both  elements  in  their  poetry ;  those 
who  rejected  either  fell  short  of  the  liighest  rank.  And  therefore  he 
perceived  the  loss  to  English  poetry  when,  after  the  decline  of  romance 
and  allegory,  'a  poetry  succeeded,  in  which  imagination  gave  way  to 
correctness,  sublimity  of  description  to  delicacy  of  sentiment,  and  majes- 
tic imagery  to  conceit  and  epigram.'  Warton 's  brief  summary  of  this 
poetry  points  out  its  weakness.  'Poets  began  now  to  be  more  attentive 
to  words,  than  to  things  and  objects.  The  nicer  beauties  of  happy 
expression  were  preferred  to  the  daring  strokes  of  great  conception. 
Satire,  that  bane  of  the  sublime,  was  imported  from  France.  The  muses 
were  debauched  at  court ;  and  polite  life,  and  familiar  manners,  became 
their  only  themes.  The  simple  dignity  of  Milton"'  was  either  entirely 
neglected,  or  mistaken  for  bombast  and  insipidity,  by  the  refined  readers 
of  a  dissolute  age,  whose  taste  and  morals  were  equally  vitiated.'" 

»8/6,rf.   I,  p.  2. 

"^Ibid.  11,  pp.  324-5. 
''"Ibid.  II,  pp.  322-3. 

"There  is  a  digression   on   Milton  in  the  Observations   (I,   pp.  335-350,  the 
prelude  to  his  edition  of  Milton,  1785  and  1791. 
~--Ibid.  II,  pp.  106-8. 


54 


THOMAS  WARTON  [54 


The  culmination— perliaps  tlie  crowning— glory  of  Warton's  first 
piece  of  critical  writing  is  his  keen  delight  in  the  task.  Addison  had 
praised  and  popularized  criticism,"  but  with  reservations;  and  most 
people — even  until  recent  times  (if  indeed  the  idea  has  now  wholly 
disappeared  from  the  earth)— would  agree  with  Warton  that  the  'busi- 
ness of  criticism  is  commonly  laborious  and  dry.'  Yet  he  affirms  that 
his  work  'has  proved  a  most  agreeable  task;'  that  it  lias  'more  frequently 
amused  than  fatigued  (his)  attention,'  and  that  'much  of  the  pleasure 
that  Spenser  experienced  in  composing  the  Fairy  Queen,  must,  in  some 
measure,  be  shared  by  his  commentator ;  and  the  critic,  on  this  occasion, 
may  speak  in  the  words,  and  with  the  rapture,  of  the  poet, — 

The  wayes  through  which  my  weary  steppes  I  guyde 

In  this  dclightfull  land  of  faerie. 

Are  so  exceeding  spacious  and  wyde, 

And  sprinkled  with  such  sweet  varietie 

Of  all  that  pleasant  is  to  ear  or  eye, 

That  I  nigh  ravisht  with  rare  thoughts  delight, 

My  tedious  travel  do  forgett  thereby : 

And  when  I  gin  to  feele  decay  of  might, 

It  strength  to  me  supplies,  and  cheares  my  dulled  spright. 
"Warton's  real  classicism  and  his  endeavours  to  carry  his  contempo- 
raries with  him  by  emphasizing  wherever  possible  his  accord  with  them 
blinded  them  for  a  time  to  the  strongly  revolutionary  import  of  the 
Observations  on  the  Fairy  Queen,  and  the  book  was  well  received  by 
pseudo-classical  readers.  Its  scholarly  merits  and  the  impulse  it  gave 
to  the  study  of  literature  were  generously  praised  by  Dr.  Johnson,'* 
who  could  partly  appreciate  the  merits  of  the  historical  method,  but 
would  not  emulate  them.  This  is  however  scarcely  a  fair  test,  for  the 
'watch-dog  of  classicism',  although  an  indifferent  scholar  when  com- 
pared with  Warton,  had  an  almost  omnivorous  thirst  for  knowledge, 
and  althougli  he  despised  research  for  its  own  sake,  his  nearest  sympathy 
with  the  romantic  movement  was  when  its  researches  tended  to  increase 
the  sum  of  human  knowledge.    "Warburton  was  delighted  with  the  06- 

"In  his  critical  essays  in  the  Spectator. 

"*July  i6,  1754.  'I  now  pay  you  a  very  honest  acknowledgement,  for  the  ad- 
vancement of  the  literature  of  our  native  country.  You  have  shewn  to  all,  who 
shall  hereafter  attempt  the  study  of  our  ancient  authours,  the  way  to  success;  by 
directing  them  to  the  perusal  of  the  books  which  those  authours  had  read.  Of 
this  method,  Hughes  and  men  much  greater  than  Hughes,  seem  never  to  have 
thought.  The  reason  why  the  authours,  which  are  yet  read,  of  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, are  so  little  understood,  is,  that  they  are  read  alone;  and  no  help  is  borrowed 
from  those  who  lived  with  them,  or  before  them.'  Boswell's  Johnson,  Hill  ed.  I, 
p.  270. 


55]  CRITICISM  55 

servations,  and  told  "Warton  so."  Walpole  complimented  the  author 
upon  it,  though  he  had  no  fondness  for  Spenser."*  The  reviewer  for  the 
Monthly  Review''^  showed  little  critical  perception.  Although  he  dis- 
cussed the  book  section  by  section,  he  discovered  notliiug  extraordinary 
in  it,  nothing  but  the  usual  influence  of  Ariosto,  defects  of  the  language, 
parallel  passage  and  learned  citation ;  and  he  reached  the  height  of 
inadequacy  when  he  thus  commended  Warton 's  learning:  'Upon  the 
whole,  Mr.  Wartoti  seems  to  have  studied  his  author  with  much  atten- 
tion, and  has  obliged  us  with  no  bad  prelude  for  the  edition,  of  which 
he  advises  us.'^  His  acquaintance  with  our  earliest  writers  must  have 
qualified  him  with  such  a  relish  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  dialect,  as  few  poets, 
since  Prior,  seem  to  have  imbibed.'  A  scurrilous  anonjnnous  pamphlet, 
The  Observer  Observ'd,  or  Remarks  on  a  certain  curio^is  Tract,  intitl'd, 
Oiscrvations  on  the  Faiere  Queen  of  Spencer,  hij  Thomas  Warton,  A.  M., 
etc,  which  appeared  two  years  after  the  Observations,  deserved  the 
harsh  treatment  it  received  at  the  hands  of  the  reviewers.''  The  imme- 
diate results  on  the  side  of  Spenserian  criticism  were  not  striking.  Two 
editions  of  the  Fairy  Queen,  bj'  John  Upton  and  Ralph  Church,  appeared 
in  1758.  Of  these,  the  first  was  accused  at  once  of  borrowing  without 
acknowledgment  from  Warton 's  Observations ;^°  the  second  is  described 
as  having  notes  little  enlightening;'^  both  editors  were  still  measuring 
Spenser  by  the  ancients.'- 

From  this  time  the  Spenserian  movement  was  poetical.    Warton 's 
essay  put  a  new  seal  of  critical  approval  upon  the  Fairy  Queen  and 

''Warburton's  Letters,  Xo.  CLVII,  Nov.  30,  1762.  Works,  London,  1809. 
XIII,  p.  338. 

'"Walpole  to  Warton,  October  30,  1767.     Walpole's  Letters,  ed.  cit.  VII,  p.  144. 

''August,  1754,  XI,  pp.  112-124. 

"Perhaps  Upton's  Edition  of  the  Fairy  Qtteen,  which  is  frequently  referred  to 
in  the  second  edition  of  the  Observations.  There  is  ample  evidence  in  Johnson's 
letters  and  Warton's  comments  upon  them,  as  well  as  in  his  own  manuscript  notes 
in  his  copy  of  Spenser's  JVorks  that  he  intended  a  companion  work  of  remarks 
on  the  best  of  Spenser's  works,  but  this  made  so  little  progress  that  it  cannot  have 
been  generally  known.  See  Boswell's  Johnson,  I,  p.  276,  and  Warton's  copy  of 
Spenser's  Works,  ed.  1617.  This  quarto  volume,  which  I  have  examined  in  the 
British  Museum,  contains  copious  notes  which  subsequently  formed  the  basis  for 
the  Observations.  The  notes  continue  partly  through  the  shorter  poems  as  well 
as  the  Fairy  Queen.  Some  of  them  were  evidently  made  for  the  second  edition, 
for  they  contain  references  to  Upton's  edition. 

"A/OM.  Rev.  July,  1756,  XV,  p.  90.        Crit.  Rev.  May,  1756,  I,  p.  374- 

^°An  impartial  Estimate  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Upton's  notes  on  the  Fairy  Queen, 
reviewed  in  Crit.  Rev.  VIII,  p.  82  flf. 

"CriV.  Rev.  VII,  p.  106. 

*-H.  E.  Cory, :   Op.  cit.,  pp.  149-50. 


56  THOMAS  WARTON  [56 

Spenser's  position  as  the  poet's  poet  was  established  with  the  new  school. 
He  was  no  longer  regarded  judicially  as  an  admirable  poet  who  imfor- 
tiinatcly  chose  inferior  models  for  verse  and  fable  with  whicli  to  present 
his  moral ;  he  was  enthusiastically  adopted  as  an  inexhaustible  source  of 
poetic  inspiration,  of  imagination,  of  charming  imagerj-,  of  rich  colour, 
of  elusive  mystery,  of  melodious  verse. 

Although  Warton's  pseudo-classical  contemporaries  did  not  perceive 
the  full  significance  of  his  study  of  Spenser,  his  general  programme 
began  to  be  accepted  and  followed ;  and  his  encouragement  of  the  study 
of  media>val  institutions  and  literature  gave  a  great  impetus  to  the 
new  romantic  movement.  Ilis  followers  were,  however,  often  credited 
with  the  originality  of  their  master,  and  their  work  was  apt  to  arouse 
stronger  protest  from  the  pseudo-classicists."  "When  Kurd's  very  ro- 
mantic Letters  on  Chivalry  and  Romance  appeared,  tliey  were  credited 
with  liaving  influenced  Warton  to  greater  tolerance  of  romance  and 
chivalry.**  This  unjust  conclusion  was  derived  no  doubt  from  the  tone 
of  greater  confidence  that  Hurd  was  able  to  assume.  Following  both 
the  Wartons,  he  sharpened  the  distinction  between  the  prevailing  pseudo- 
classical  school  of  poetry  and  what  he  called  the  Gothic ;  insisted  upon 
the  independence  of  its  standards ;  and  even  maintained  the  superiority 

s'While  even  Dr.  Johnson  had  only  praise  for  the  Observations,  Joseph  War- 
ton's  Essay  on  Pope,  on  the  whole  a  less  revolutionary  piece  of  criticism,  touched 
a  more  sensitive  point.  He  found  the  essay  instructive,  and  recommended  it  as  a 
'just  specimen  of  literary  moderation.'  Johnson's  Works,  ed.  1825,  V,  p.  670. 
But  as  an  attack  on  the  reputation  of  the  favourite  Augustan  poet,  its  drift  was 
evident,  and  pernicious.  This  heresy  was  for  him  an  explanation  of  Warton's 
delay  in  continuing  it.  'I  suppose  he  finds  himself  a  little  disappointed,  in  not 
having  been  able  to  persuade  the  world  to  be  of  his  opinion  as  to  Pope.'  Boswell's 
Johnson,  I,  p.  448. 

**Cn7.  Rev.  XVI,  p.  220.  It  is  perfectly  evident  however  that  the  debt  does 
not  lie  on  that  side.  Kurd's  Letters  and  the  second  edition  of  the  Observations 
appeared  in  the  same  year,  which  would  almost  conclusively  preclude  any  borrow- 
ings from  the  first  for  the  second.  But  Warton's  first  edition,  eight  years  before, 
had  enough  of  chivalry  and  romance  to  kindle  a  mind  in  sympathy.  Hurd  was  a  less 
thorough  student  of  the  old  romances  themselves  than  Warton  was.  He  seems  to 
have  known  them  through  a  French  work,  probably  Sainte  Palaye's  Meiiioircs  sur 
I'Ancienne  Chcvalerie  (1750),  for  he  said,  'Not  that  I  shall  make  a  merit  with  you  in 
having  perused  these  barbarous  volumes  myself.  .  .  .  Thanks  to  the  curiosity  of 
certain  painful  collectors,  this  knowledge  may  be  obtained  at  a  cheaper  rate.  And  I 
think  it  sufficient  to  refer  you  to  a  learned  and  very  elaborate  memoir  of  a  French 
writer.'  Letters  on  Chivalry  and  Romance.  Letter  IV,  Kurd's  Works,  ed.  181 1, 
IV,  p.  260.  Warton  also  knew  this  French  work  (Ste.  Palaye's  at  least)  and 
quoted  from  it,  Observations,  I,  p.  76,  and  frequently  in  his  History  of  English 
Poetry. 


57]  CRITICISM  57 

of  its  subjects.*'  In  all  this  however  he  made  no  real  departure  from 
"Warton,  the  difference  being  one  of  emphasis ;  Hurd  gave  an  important 
impetus  to  the  movement  his  master  liad  begun.  But  with  all  his  mo- 
dernit}-,  his  admiration  for  the  growing  school  of  imaginative  poets,  he 
lacked  Warton  's  faith  in  his  school ;  he  had  no  forward  view,  but  looked 
back  on  the  past  with  regret,  and  toward  the  future  without  hope.'" 

On  the  side  of  pure  literary  criticism  Warton 's  first  and  most  im- 
portant follower  was  his  elder  brother,  Joseph,  whose  Essay  on  Pope 
was  a  further  application  of  his  critical  theories  to  the  reigning  favour- 
ite. This  very  remarkable  book  was  the  first  extensive  and  serious  attack 
upon  Pope's  supremacy  as  a  poet,  and  it  is  credited  with  two  very 
important  contributions  to  the  romantic  movement:  the  overthrow  of 
Pope  and  his  school ;  and  the  substitution  of  new  models,  Spenser,  Shake- 
speare, Hilton,  and  the  modern  school;'^  it  contained  the  first  explicit 
statement  of  the  new  poetic  theories.'* 

*5'May  there  not  be  something  in  the  Gothic  Romance  peculiarly  suited  to  the 
views  of  a  genius,  and  to  the  ends  of  poetry?'  Hurd,  IV,  p.  239.  'Under  this  idea 
then  of  a  Gothic,  not  classical  poem,  the  Fairy  Queen  is  to  be  read  and  criticized.' 
IV,  p.  292.  'So  far  as  the  heroic  and  Gothic  manners  are  the  same,  the  pictures  of 
each,  .  .  .  must  be  equally  entertaining.  But  I  go  further,  and  maintain  that  the 
circumstances,  in  which  they  differ,  are  clearly  to  the  advantage  of  the  Gothic 
designers  .  .  .'  could  Homer  'have  seen  .  .  .  the  manners  of  the  feudal  ages,  I 
make  no  doubt  but  he  would  certainly  have  preferred  the  latter,'  because  of  '  "the 
improved  gallantry  of  the  Gothic  Knights;  and  the  superior  solemnity  of  their 
superstitions".'    IV,  p.  280. 

*°Hurd's  Letters,  IV,  p.  350. 

^'Joseph  Warton  placed  Spenser,  Shakespeare,  Milton,  'our  only  three  sublime 
and  pathetic  poets,'  in  the  first  class,  at  the  head  of  English  poets.  The  object  of 
the  essay  was  to  determine  Pope's  place  in  the  list.  'I  revere  the  memory  of 
Pope/  he  said,  'I  respect  and  honour  his  abilities ;  but  I  do  not  think  him  at  the 
head  of  his  profession.  In  other  words,  in  that  species  of  poetry  wherein  Pope 
excelled,  he  is  superior  to  all  mankind ;  and  I  only  say,  that  this  species  of  poetry 
is  not  the  most  excellent  one  of  the  art.'  Dedication,  pp.  i-ii.  'The  sublime  and 
pathetic  are  the  two  chief  nerves  of  all  genuine  poetry.  What  is  there  transcend- 
ently  sublime  or  pathetic  in  Pope.?'  Ded.,  p.  vi.  After  a  careful  examination 
of  all  Pope's  works  Joseph  Warton  assigned  him  the  highest  place  in  the  second 
class,  below  Milton  and  above  Dryden.  He  was  given  a  place  above  other  modern 
English  poets  because  of  the  'excellencies  of  his  works  in  general,  and  taken  all 
together;  for  there  are  parts  and  passages  in  other  modern  authors,  in  Young  and 
in  Thomson,  for  instance,  equal  to  any  of  Pope,  and  he  has  written  nothing  in  a 
strain  so  truly  sublime,  as  the  Bard  of  Gray.'  II,  p.  405.  References  are  to  the 
fifth  edition,  2  vols.     1806. 

**The  first  volume  of  Joseph  VVarton's  Essay  on  Pope  appeared  in  1756,  two 
years  after  the  Observations.  Though  its  iconoclasm  was  more  apparent,  the 
later  essay  made  little  advance  in  the  way  of  new  theory  upon  the  earlier  one,  and 
there  is  rather  more  of  hedging  in  the  discussion  of  Pope  than  in  that  of  Spenser. 


58  THOMAS  WARTON  [58 

Warton's  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  thus  wrought  so  great 
aud  so  salutary  a  change  in  literary  criticism  that  it  is  hardly  possible 
to  exaggerate  its  importance.  Here  first  the  historical  method  was 
appreciated  and  extensively  employed.  Here  first  the  pseudo-classicism 
of  till'  age  of  Pope  was  exposed.  Here  first  is  maintained  a  nice  and 
difficult  balance  between  classical  and  romantic  criticism:  without  under- 
estimating the  influence  of  classical  literature  upon  the  development  of 
Englisii  poetry,  Warton  first  insisted  that  due  attention  be  paid  the 
neglected  literature  of  the  Middle  Ages,  which  with  quite  independent 
but  equally  legitimate  traditions  contributed  richly  not  only  to  the  poetry 
of  Spenser  but  to  all  great  poetry  since.  His  strength  lies  in  the  solidity 
and  the  inclusiveness  of  his  critical  principles.  "Without  being  carried 
away  by  romantic  enthusiasm  to  disregard  the  classics,  he  saw  and  ac- 
counted for  a  difference  between  modern  and  ancient  poetry  aud  adapted 
his  criticism  to  poetry  as  he  found  it  instead  of  trying  to  conform  poetry 
to  rules  which  were  foreign  to  it.  This  new  criticism  exposed  the  fatal 
weakness  in  the  prevailing  pseudo-classical  poetry  and  criticism;  it 
showed  the  folly  of  judging  either  single  poems  or  national  literatures 
as  independent  and  detached,  and  the  necessity  of  considering  them  in 
relation  to  the  national  life  and  literature  to  which  they  belong.  Thus 
Warton's  freedom  from  prejudice  and  preconceived  standards,  his  inter- 
est in  the  human  being  who  %vrites  poetry,  and  the  influences  both  social 
and  literary  which  surround  him,  his — for  that  day — extraordinary 
knowledge  of  aU  those  conditions,  enabled  him  to  become  the  founder 
of  a  new  school  of  criticism. 


CHAPTER  IV 
Academic  Life.    1747-1772 

"Warton  had  not  intended  to  have  done  wdth  Spenser  when  he  pub- 
lished his  criticism  of  the  Faerie  Queene,  but  purposed  to  follow  it  with 
a  similar  treatment  of  the  shorter  poems.  His  own  copy  of  Spenser's 
works,  the  wide  margins  of  which  he  covered  with  notes  of  all  sorts, — 
glosses,  comparisons  with  other  poems,  references  to  romances,  illus- 
trative and  interpretive  comments, — show  that  he  carried  out  this  plan 
for  many  of  the  poems.  But  tutorial  duties  hindered ;  he  permitted  his 
interest  to  be  diverted  to  other  matters,  and  the  work  went  no  further. 
Dr.  Johnson 's  letters  to  him  during  the  winter  following  the  publication 
of  the  Oiservations  show  that  he  was  urgiug  him  to  the  completion  of 
work  which  he  perceived  was  languishing.  In  November  he  wrote,  'I 
am  glad  of  your  hindrance  in  your  Spenserian  design,^  yet  I  would  not 
have  it  delayed.  Three  hours  a  day  stolen  from  sleep  and  amusement 
will  produce  it.'-  No  one  knew  better  than  Dr.  Johnson  the  temptations 
to  procrastinate ;  therefore  he  wrote  again  with  anxiety  on  the  same 
subject: —  'Where  hangs  the  new  volume?  Can  I  help?  Let  not  the 
past  labour  be  lost,  for  want  of  a  little  more :  but  snatch  what  time  you 
can  from  the  Hall,  and  the  pupils,  and  the  coffee-house,  and  the  parks, 
and  complete  j'our  design.'' 

Although  Warton  abandoned  this  project  of  making  a  complete 
commentary  on  Spenser's  works,  he  undertook  to  prepare  a  second 
edition  of  the  Observations,  in  which  he  made  some  additions  and  correc- 
tions, but  no  material  changes.  When  Percy  undertook  seriously  to 
publish  a  collection  of  old  ballads,  he  promptly  engaged  Warton 's  inter- 
est and  assistance  by  sending  him  a  few  ballads,  including  the  Boy  and 
the  Mantle,  the  source  of  Spenser's  conceit  of  Florimel's  girdle.  Warton 
was  delighted  with  Percy 's  plan  and  with  the  suggestion  for  the  improve- 
ment of  his  own  work,  and  wrote  to  Percy, '  The  old  Ballads  are  extremely 
curious,  &  I  heartily  wish  you  success  in  your  intended  publication. 

^"  'Of  publishing  a  volume  of  observations  on  the  best  of  Spenser's  works.  It 
was  hindered  by  my  taking  pupils  in  this  College.'  Warton."  Boswell's  Johnson, 
ed.  cit.,  I,  p.  276,  note. 

2N0V.  28,  1754.    Ibid. 

'Feb.  4,  1754,  Ibid.,  p.  279. 

59 


60  THOMAS  WARTON  [60 

Spenser  certaiuly  had  the  Boy  &  the  Mantle  in  view.  I  must  beg  leave 
to  keep  them  all  a  little  time  longer  as  they  will  much  enrich  &  illustrate 
a  new  edition  of  that  work  whieli  you  are  pleased  to  place  in  so  favour- 
able a  Light.  It  is  already  in  the  Press. '^  He  was  careful,  however, 
not  to  anticipate  Percy's  scheme  by  publishing  extracts  from  the  ballads 
and  romances,  and  explained  in  his  next  letter:  'My  Design  is  to  give 
abstract.s  only  of  what  you  have  sent  me."  At  the  same  time  he  ex- 
pressed his  appreciation  of  the  'ingenious  Remarks  on  my  book,  which 
I  receive  as  useful  hints  for  the  improvement  of  my  new  Edition." 

Warton  immediately  busied  himself  helping  Percy  with  his  new 
plan.  But  at  the  same  time  he  asked  that  Percy's  and  Lye's  further 
retnarks  on  his  own  work  be  sent  'in  a  Post  or  two,  as  we  go  on  very 
quickly  at  Press,  &  I  can  insert  them  in  the  last  Section,'  adding,  'In- 
deed I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  what  you  have  already  communicated, 
&  the  kind  offer  you  make,  in  your  last,  of  searching  the  libraries  of  your 
neighbourliood,  to  assist  me  in  any  future  pursuit'."  His  next  letter, 
written  during  the  following  summer,  announced  'Spenser'  as  'just 
ready  for  publication,"  and  it  immediately  appeared. 

Somewhat  earlier,  perhaps  even  before  the  publication  of  the  Obser- 
vations on  the  Faerie  Qneene,  "Warton  was  at  work  on  a  translation  of 
Apollonius  Rhodius,*  but,  although  Johnson  urged  him  to  continue  it* 
as  he  had  urged  him  to  complete  the  observations  on  Spenser, — he  seems 
to  have  had  both  of  them  under  way  at  the  same  time," — it  met  the 
same  fate.  It  seems  to  have  been  regarded  for  some  time  rather  as  a 
work  deferred  than  abandoned,  for  in  1770  Dr.  Barnard  wrote  him  in 

*Trin.  Coll.  Oxon.  Jun.  19,  1761,  Warton  MSS.  in  Harvard  College  Library, 
fol.  2. 

°Jul.  II,  1761,  same  MSS.  fol.  4. 

^Ibid. 

'Nov.  23,  1761,  same  MSS.  fol.  6. 

'Jul.  17,  1762,  same  MSS.  fol.  9. 

'Among  the  Warton  papers  in  Trinity  College  Library,  Oxford,  is  a  small 
notebook  of  notes  upon  Apollonius  and  a  synopsis  of  the  Argonautica.  See  also 
Mant,  Op.  cit.,  p.  xxxiv.  Mant's  informant  thought  a  translation  of  Homer  was  also 
intended.  'Thomas  Warton,  January  21,  1752,  agreed  to  translate  the  Argonautics 
of  Apollonius  Rhodius  for  80  pounds.'  Willis's  Current  Notes,  Nov.  1854,  p.  90. 
See  also  Boswell's  Johnson,  I,  p.  289,  note. 

*May  13,  1755.  'How  goes  Apollonius?  Don't  let  him  be  forgotten.  Some 
things  of  this  kind  must  be  done,  to  keep  us  up.'    Ibid. 

'"See  Wooll,  Op.  cit.,  p.  225. 

''Dr.  Jeffrey  Ekins.  Evidently  the  reply  was  satisfactory,  for  the  next  year, 
1771,  his  Loves  of  Medea  and  Jason;  .  .  .  translated  from  the  Greek  of  Apollo- 
nius Rhodius's  Argonautics  was  published. 


61]  AC.U>EMIC    LIFE  61 

behalf  of  a  friend  of  his"  to  know  whether  or  not  he  had  definitely  given 
up  the  project. 

After  the  completion  of  the  second  edition  of  Spenser,  Warton's 
researches  in  Euglisli  literature  were  somewhat  vicarious,  although  no 
doubt  his  efforts  in  Percy's  behalf  were  of  some  value  to  his  collections 
for  the  history  of  poetry.  His  previous  studies  in  early  English  poetry 
for  the  Observations  made  him  invaluable  to  Percy  iu  tlie  extensive 
projects  which  he  undertook  with  remarkable  susceptibility  to  the  grow- 
ing interest  of  his  age  in  the  older  poetry.  Percy's  first  undertakings 
of  this  sort,  the  editions  of  Buckingham^-  and  of  Surrey,^' — which  how- 

^-An  edition  of  the  Works  of  George  Villiers,  Duke  of  Buckingham,  with  an 
account  of  his  Life  .  .  .  and  a  new  key  to  the  Rehearsal,  was  agreed  upon  between 
Percy  and  Tonson,  June  12,  1761  and  most  of  it  then  printed ;  it  was  resumed 
in  179s,  but  never  completed.  (See  Nichols:  Lit.  llliis.  VI,  p.  556,  Lit.  A)iec.  Ill, 
p.  161,  note,  and  Arbcr  Reprints,  XIII,  introd.)  I  print  all  the  extracts  from 
Warton's  letters  to  Percy  relative  to  this  undertaking  as  they  partly  show  the 
nature  and  extent  of  Warton's  help. 

'The  Pieces  of  Buckingham  &c,  which  you  mention,  are  not  in  the  Bodleian ; 
nor  is  there  any  circumstance  relating  to  the  Duke  in  Aubrey's  Papers.'     Jun.  19, 

1761  (Harv.  MSS.  fol.  2).  'I  have  looked  over  the  Letter  to  Osborne  [?]  in  the 
Bodleian,  &  find  no  striking  marks  of  Buckingham ;  nor,  upon  the  whole,  do  I 
think  it  written  by  him.  If  I  hear  of  those  Editions  of  the  Rehearsal  you  men- 
tion, I  will  let  you  know.'  Oxon.  Nov.  23,  1761  (same  MSS.  fol.  6).  'At  my 
Return  to  0.xford,  which  will  be  about  the  tenth  of  next  October,  I  will  carefully 
transcribe  the  MSS.  you  mention  relating  to  Buckingham.'     Winchester,  Sept.  4, 

1762  (same  MSS.  fol.  11).  'You  shall  receive  a  copy  of  the  D.  of  Buckingham's 
MSS.  with  the  rest.  ...  I  imagine  you  must  know,  that  B.  .  .  .  [?]  in  the  Strand, 
lately  published  a  Catalogue  of  the  D.  of  Buckingham's  Pictures;  with  his  Life 
by  Brian  Fairfax  never  before  printed.'  What  sort  of  a  thing  it  is  I  know  not' 
Oxon.  Nov.  5,  1762,  (same  MSS.  fol.  14).  'Next  week  you  will  receive  MSS. 
D.  Buckingham.'  Oxon.  Nov.  12,  1762  (same  MSS.  fol.  15).  'I  presume  you  know 
there  is  a  Life  of  Buckingham  in  the  last  new  volume  of  the  Biographia.'  Oxon. 
Mar.  14,  1763  (same  MSS.  fol.  22). 

"The  edition  of  Surrey  was  agreed  upon  with  Tonson  Mar.  24,  1763,  and  was 
printed  in  one  volume,  but  was  similarly  delayed,  and  nearly  the  whole  impression 
was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1808.  (Lit.  Iltus.  VI,  p.  560).  Only  four  copies  are 
known  to  have  survived,  but  these  probably  do  not  include  the  copy  mentioned  in 
Warton's  letter  of  Feb.  26,  1767,  below,  which  Percy  had  sent  to  him,  and  which 
was  sold  with  the  rest  of  Warton's  library.  See  A  Catalogue  of  books,  [being 
the  libraries  of  Dr.  Joseph  Warton,  Thomas  Warton  .  .  .  and  others]  to  be  sold 
by  Thomas  Payne,  London,  1801. 

As  before  I  print  extracts  from  Warton's  letters  to  Percy  referring  to  this 
work. 

'I  have  found  out  .  .  Ld.   Surrey's  blank  verse  Translation,  but  fear  I  shall 


a.  17S8,  with  advertisement,  by  Horace  Walpole.     See  ed.   of   The  Reliearsal  in  the  Arber 
Reprints,  vol.  XIII,  and  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  art.  Villiers. 


G2  THOMAS  WARTON  [62 

ever  were  never  publislied — Wartoii  encouraged  and  assisted  as  much  as 
possible  by  si-nrchiiig  for  editions,  and  securing  transcripts,  and  urging  J 

the  continuation  of  the  work  when  he  perceived  it  to  be  languishing.  1 

He  probably  helped  little  with  the  proposed  edition  of  the  Spectator,^*'  J 

although  he  was  interested  in  it."     His  help  was,  of  course,  most  val- 
uable in  the  preparation  of  Percy's  folio  manuscript  of  old  poems  for 

not  be  able  to  transmitt  them  to  you  while  I  stay  in  town.     I  will  however  leave  • 

directions  about  it.'     London,  Jan.  i,  1763  (Harv.  MSS.  as  above,  fol.  20).  ^ 

'I  must  beg  your  Patience  for  .  .  .  Surrey  a  little  longer.'  London,  Jan.  9,  1763 
(same  MSS.  fol.  21).  'By  Mr.  Garrick's  and  Dr.  Hoadly's  Interest,  I  have  pro- 
cured, and  have  now  in  my  hands,  Surrey's  Translation  into  blank  verse  of  the 
second  &  fourth  books  of  the  ^neid,  for  Tottel,  ISS7-  It  is  a  most  curious 
specimen  of  early  blank  verse,  &  will  prove  a  valuable  Restoration  to  Lord  Surrey's 
Works.  It  belongs  to  a  Mr.  Warner  of  London,  who  is  a  great  black-letter  Critic. 
How  shall  I  send  it  to  you?'  O.xon.  Mar.  14,  1763  (Same  MSS.  fol.  22).  'If  you 
prosecute  the  Edition  of  Surrey's  Poems,  I  shall  be  happy  to  be  employed  in 
sending  you  all  the  assistance  which  our  O-xford  Repositories  afford.'  Trin.  Coll. 
Dec.  S,  1764  (Same  MSS.  fol.  29).  'The  Edition  of  Surrey,  1557,  I  know  not 
where  to  borrow.'     Oxon.  Jun.  15,   1765   (Same  MSS.  fol.  30). 

'Can  I  be  of  any  further  assistance  in  the  new  edition  of  antient  Songs,  or  of 
Lord  Surrey?  ...  I  beg  a  sight  of  what  is  printed  of  Surrey  as  soon  as  you 
conveniently  can  send  it.'     Oxon.  Nov.  29,  1766  (Same  MSS.  fol.  28). 

'I  like  your  Text  of  Surrey  very  much :  and  shall  be  extremely  glad  to  see  your 
Notes  and  Life.  I  hope,  they  are  in  Forwardness.  If  you  intend  a  Table  of 
various  Readings,  I  could  gett  Collections  of  the  Bodleian  Copies.'  Trin.  Coll. 
Oxon.  Feb.  26,  1767  (Same  MSS.  fol.  31). 

'I  despair  of  finding  any  Editions  of  Surrey  in  the  private  Libraries ;  but  will 
however  examine  the  Catalogues.'  Trin.  Coll.  Oxon.  Apr.  21,  1767  (Same  MSS. 
fol.  32). 

'I  have  lately  had  a  Letter  from  Dr.  Hoadly,  by  whose  means  I  lent  you  an 
Edition  of  Surrey  belonging  to  Mr.  Warner.  It  seems  Mr.  Warner  wants  the 
Book,  for  a  work  he  has  now  in  hand;  and  would  be  extremely  glad  if  you  would 
return  it  to  him  at  Woodford  Row,  Essex,  or  Will's  Coffee  house  Lincolns  inn 
fields.  When  he  has  done  with  it,  he  will  return  it  to  you  again.  He  does  not 
mean  to  keep  it  long.  I  think  I  likewise  lent  you  a  book  of  Dr.  Hoadly's,  Surry's 
Translation  of  fart  of  Virgil.  At  your  Leisure  you  may  return  that  to  me  next 
October  at  Oxford.  You  will  excuse  me  for  mentioning  these  Particulars.  But 
Dr.  Hoadly  desired  me  to  write  to  you  on  the  Subject'  Winton.  Sept.  13,  1770 
(Same  MSS.  fol.  38). 

"See  letters  to  Tonson  and  agreement  with  him,  1764,  Lit.  IIlus.  VI,  pp.  557  ff. 
'"The  following  communication  to  Percy  was  obviously  not  his  first  upon  the 
subject.  'I  have  mentioned  your  Scheme  of  the  Spectators,  &c.  to  my  brother  and 
Dr.  Hoadly  long  since;  but  will  remember  to  renew  my  applications,  in  the  most 
effectual  way,  when  I  see  them  next  long  vacation.'  Oxon.  Jun.  15,  1765  (Same 
MSS.  fol.  30). 


63]  ACADEMIC    LIFE  63 

publication.  One  of  the  first  scholars  to  whom  Percy  appealed  for 
approval  and  help  with  this  project,  Warton  was  indefatigable  in  his 
efforts  to  assist,  ransacking  the  Oxford  libraries,'"  his  own  collections 
and  those  of  his  friends,  comparing  manuscript  and  other  versions  of 
the  poems,"  looking  up  additions  to  the  collection  and  to  the  notes,"  and 

"They  however  yielded  little  at  first :  'We  have  nothing,  as  I  recollect,  in 
our  Libraries  which  will  contribute  to  your  Scheme.'  Trin.  Coll.  Oxon.  Jun.  ig, 
1761  (Same  MSS.  fol.  2).  'Was  there  any  thing  in  our  public  or  private  Libraries 
which  would  contribute  to  your  scheme,  I  would  transcribe  &  transmitt  them 
with  pleasure.  But  I  am  sorry  to  say  that  we  are  totally  destitute  of  Treasures 
of  this  sort.'    Jul.  11,  1761   (Same,  fol.  4). 

"For  example,  for  the  three  ballads  relating  to  Guy  of  Warwick,  of  which 
Percy  published  only  Guy  &  Amarant  and  The  Legend  of  Sir  Guy,  based  upon 
Guy  &  Phillis  in  the  original,  Warton  furnished  the  following  pretty  correct  data: 
'I  know  of  no  MSS.  poem  of  Guy.  I  am  however  of  opinion,  that  the  Piece,  of 
which  you  sent  me  a  specimen,  is  probably  Philips's ;  as  the  style  is  agreeable  to  his 
age,  &  the  composition  not  bad.  I  have  some  notion  that  I  once  saw  a  Poem 
called  Guy  Earl  of  li'anvick  in  the  Harleian  Miscellany;  but  I  can't  be  positive. 
Among  Wood's  Codd.  impress,  in  Mus.  Ashmol.  is  a  Poem  called  "The  Famoui 
History  of  Guy  Earl  of  Warwick,"  by  Sam :  Rowlands,  1649.  It  is  a  Mighty  poor 
thing,  &  certainly  different  from  your  Specimen,  I  know  of  no  copy  of  the  Harl. 
Miscell.  here;  otherwise  I  would  consult  it  for  you.'  Oxon  Jul.  17,  1762  (same, 
fol.  9).  Warton's  memory,  to  which  he  trusted  for  much  of  the  next  communi- 
cation, was  somewhat  at  fault,  for  he  confuses  Rowland's  modern  version  with 
some  fragments  found  in  the  cover  of  an  old  book  by  Sir  Thomas  Phillips  (See 
Hale's  and  Furnivall's  ed.  of  the  Percy  Folio  MSS.  II,  p.  510).  'When  I  told' 
you,  in  my  Last,  that  the  Poem  on  Guy  is  probably  Phillips's,  I  fancy  I  meant  a 
Phillips,  who,  as  I  think  I  told  you  in  the  same  Letter,  wrote  a  Poem  in  the  year 
1649,  or  thereabouts,  on  Guy.  I  think  now  this  was  my  meaning;  for  when  I 
wrote  to  you  that  account  of  Guy,  I  copied  it  from  a  memorandum  in  one  of  my 
Pocket-books.  When  I  am  at  Oxford  I  can  settle  this  matter.  In  the  same 
Pocket  book,  I  recollect  I  had  likewise  entered.  See  the  Harl.  Miscell.  for  Guy. 
The  Pocket-book  is  at  Oxford.'  Winchester,  Sept.  4,  1762  (same,  fol.  11).  Later 
he  added,  'I  don't  think  Guy  &  Amarant  any  Part  of  Rowland's  Poem,'  but  exami- 
nation showed  that  Percy's  'stanzas  of  Guy  and  Amarant  [were]  literally  taken 
from  Rowlands's  said  poem.'  Trin.  Coll.  Oxon.  Nov.  5  and  12,  1762  (same,  fols. 
14,  and  is). 

''For  example.  King  Ryence's  Challenge,  which  was  not  in  the  folio,  having 
been  referred  to  in  the  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  as  a  ballad  found  in 
Morte  Arthur  (ed.  cit.  I,  p.  36),  Warton  was  called  upon  to  supply  a  copy  of  it, 
and  sent  the  following  information,  most  of  which  appears  in  Percy's  notes 
(Reliques,  ed.  Wheatley,  London,  1891,  III,  p.  24  ff.).  'You  will  find  the  ballad, 
of  which  I  quote  a  Piece,  in  P.  Enderbury's  [Enderbie]  Cambria  Triumphans.  pag. 
197.  It  is  not  in  my  edition  of  Morte  Arthur,  which  evidently  is  the  same  as 
your's.     I  presume  it  is  in  the  older  Editions,  from  whence  the  author  quoted  by 


64  THOMAS  WARTON  [64 

trying  by  every  means  to  encourage  the  completion  of  an  undertaking" 
80  important  for  tlie  'revival  of  the  study  of  antient  English  Literature.' 
Warton,  who  probably  was  ignorant  of  the  liberties  Percy  was  tak- 
ing with  tile  manuscript  in  his  possession,  made  no  objection  to  the 
introduction  of  modern  imitations  of  old  poems  based  upon  old  stories. 

mc,  pag.  24,  probably  took  it.  .  .  .  Enderbury  [ut  supra]  was  lent  me  by  a  clergj- 
nian  in  Hants;  whither  I  am  going  in  a  few  Days  for  the  long  vacation;  &  will 
from  thence  send  you  the  Song.'  Trin.  Coll.  Oxon.  Jul.  il,  1761  (^same,  fol.  4). 
'I  have  collated  the  Ballad  in  Enderbie  with  the  MSS.  inserted  in  the  Bodleian 
Morte  Arthur,  &  with  the  printed  copy  of  it  in  the  Letter  describing  Q.  Elizabeth's 
Entertainment  a  Kenihvorth;  &  here  send  you  the  various  Readings  in  Both. 
From  the  Title  to  the  MSS  Copy,  it  is  plain  that  this  Ballad  is  not  very  old.  I 
should  judge,  with  you,  that  the  story  only  was  taken  from  M.  Arthur,  was  it 
not  for  the  passage,  immediately  following,  in  the  Letter.  By  which  one  would 
suspect,  that  it  was  printed  in  some  editions  of  M.  Arthur.  At  least  we  may 
conclude  from  thence,  that  it  was  not  occasionally  composed  for  the  Kenihvorth 
festivities.  My  mistake  in  quoting  it  as  a  ballad  in  M.  Arthur,  arose  from  my 
finding  it  written  into  the  Bodleian  copy,  in  the  place,  as  I  imagined,  of  a  Leaf 
torn  out :  for  there  are  no  pages  in  that  Edition.  This  supposition  was  strength- 
ened by  the  mention  of  this  ballad  in  the  Letter.'  Trin.  Coll.  Oxon.  Nov.  23,  1761 
(same,  fol.  6).  'I  find  a  copy  of  K.  Ryence's  Challenge  in  an  old  Miscellany  of 
time  of  Charles  I.  But  as  you  have  given  so  correct  a  copy  of  this  piece,  it  will 
be  of  no  service,  unless  you  chuse  to  mention  it  in  your  Preface.'  London,  Jan. 
li  '"63  (same,  fol.  20).  Percy,  however,  paid  no  heed  to  Warton's  last  suggestion 
and  says  that  the  ballad  was  composed  for  the  festivities  at  Kenihvorth  ( Rcliqucs, 
ed.  cit.  Ill,  p.  24). 

Two  other  additional  poems,  not  found  in  the  folio,  in  the  preparation  of 
which  Warton  had  a  share  are  King  Cophetua  &  the  Beggar  Maid  and  King" 
Edward  &  the  Tanner  of  Tannvorth.  With  reference  to  a  copy  of  the  first.  War- 
ton  wrote :  'The  King  &  the  Beggar  which  you  send  me  (which  I  see  is  from  the 
little  l2mo  Collection  of  Songs  in  3  vols)  is  quite  different  from  Johnson's  in  the 
Crovnie  Garland.  The  Bodleyan  is  shut  up  on  account  of  its  annual  visitation.  It 
will  be  open  on  Tuesday,  when  I  will  begin  the  transcript.'  And  then  he  corrected 
himself  in  the  same  letter,  T  think,  &  am  pretty  sure,  that  your  initial  Stanca  of 
the  King  &•  Beggar  in  your  letter,  is  the  same  as  Johnson's  in  the  Crowne-Garland. 
But  this  I  shall  ascertain  when  the  Library  is  opened,'  and  later  he  sent  the  tran- 
script of  it  from  that  collection.  Nov.  5  and  12,  1762  (fols.  14  and  15).  See  also 
Reliqucs. 

After  promising  a  transcript  of  the  ballad,  Warton  wrote,  'On  Examination, 
the  King  &  the  Tanner  appears  to  be  imperfect  by  the  last  Line  only,  which  was 
carelessly  pared  off  in  the  Bind  [ery.  It  (MS.  torn)]  is  mentioned  somewhere,  I 
cannot  recollect  exactly  where,  by  Hea[rn]'.  Nov.  12,  1762.  An  extract  from 
Hearn's  Account  of  Some  Antiquities  in  &  about  Oxford  was  sent  in  a  letter  of 
Jan.  9,  1763,  but  it  pertained  to  Heywood's  play.  The  first  &  second  parts  of  King 
Edward  the  Fourth,  conteining  the  Tanner  of  Tamworth,  etc,  1613  and  not  The 


65]  ACADEMIC    LIFE  65 

He  said  of  Percy's  Valentine  and  Ursine,  a  poem  suggested  by  The 
Emperour  &  the  Childe  in  the  original  manuscript,  which  Percy  rejected 
on  the  pretense  that  it  was  'in  a  wretched  corrupt  state,  unworthy  the 
press':-"  The  'Story  is  fiiie  &  to  me  perfectly  new,  as  it  is  many  years 
since  I  read  the  old  History  of  Valentine  and  Orson,  on  which  I  presume 
it  is  partly  founded.'-'  The  Birth  of  St.  George,  admittedly  taken  from 
the  Seven  Champions  of  Christendom  and  'for  the  most  part  modern', 
won  from  him  the  praise  of  being  'most  poetically  liaudled.'--  And 
before  the  completion  of  the  worli  he  explicitly  approved  the  inclusion 
of  specimens  of  rare  poems  of  later  date  than  the  ballads:  'I  perceive, 
by  the  proofs,  that  you  give  specimens  of  our  elder  Poets.  This  is  a 
good  Improvement  of  the  Scheme. '^^  For  this  purpose  he  sent  Gas- 
coigue's  Ode  on  Ladie  Bridges,-*  offered  a  transcript  of  The  King's 
Quair,-'^  and  traced  'the  pretty  pastoral  song  of  Fhillida  &  Cory  don'  to 

Merrie,  pleasant,  &  delectable  historic  betweene  K.  Edward  IV  &  a  Tanner  of 
Taitnvorth,  etc.  1596  (also  in  the  Bodleian),  from  which  Warton's  transcript  was 
no  doubt  taken,   (fol.  20). 

Warton's  familiarity  with  the  early  poetry  enabled  him  to  send  a  note  on  the 
reference  to  Robin  Hood  in  Piers  Plowman,  '  "But  I  can  rimes  of  Robin  Hod, 
and  Randall  of  Chester",  Fol  xxvi  b.  Crowley's  edit.  1550',  Mar.  31,  1764  (fol.  26). 

'"Upon  receipt  of  at  least  a  partial  copy  of  the  ballads  Warton  wrote  to 
Percy,  'The  old  Ballads  are  extremely  curious,  &  I  heartily  wish  you  success  in 
your  intended  publication,'  (Jun.  19,  1761,  fol.  2),  and  the  following  year  to  some 
notes  on  various  poems  he  added,  'How  goes  on  the  Collection  of  ancient  Ballads? 
I    hope   we    shall   have    it    in    the   winter.'    Winchester,    Sept.   4,    1762    (fol.    11). 

When  the  timid  Percy  sought  the  approval  of  'men  of  learning  and  character' 
to  'serve  as  an  amulet  to  guard  him  from  every  unfavourable  censure,  for  having 
bestowed  any  attention  on  a  parcel  of  old  ballads',  Warton  was  glad  to  lend  his 
name.  'My  name  will  receive  houour  in  being  mentioned  before  your  elegant 
Work.'  Winchester,  Jul.  30,  1764  (fol.  27).  Six  months  later  he  inquired  about 
its  progress:    'I  hope  your  Ballads  are  near  Publication.'     Dec.    5,    1764  (fol.  29). 

-"Reliques,  ed.  cit.  HI,  p.  265. 

-'Oxon.  Nov.  21,  1762,  Harvard  MSS.,  fol.  16. 

^-Oxford,  Trin.  Coll.  Octob.  20,  1762,  same  MSS.,  fol.  12. 

23 Winchester,  Jul.  30,  1764,  fol.  27. 

-*It  was  promised  in  the  letter  of  Sept.  4,  1762  (fol.  11),  and  in  that  of  Nov. 
21,  he  added  the  comment,  'I  think  you  will  like  the  little  ode  of  Gascoigne.' 

2^After  a  vain  search  for  the  'Ballad  of  James  I  of  Scotland'  (fol.  15)  for 
which  Percy  had  given  inaccurate  references,  Warton  'discovered  the  Poem  of 
James  I  of  Scotland,  where  you  direct  me  in  your  last.  It  consists  of  near  100 
pages  in  folio,  closely  written.  It  is  a  vision  in  long  verse,  in  stanzas  of  seven 
Lines.  Shall  you  want  a  Transcript?'  (Nov.  21,  1762,  fol.  16).  Percy  rejected 
this  poem,  however,  and  printed  instead  some  shorter  verses  of  questionable 
authenticity.    Reliques,  ed.  cit.  II,  p.  300. 


66  THOMAS  WARTON  [66 

England's  Helicon'  and  'the  Muses  Library,  1738'.=' 

Percy  was  unsuccessful,  however,  in  an  effort  to  tempt  "Warton  to 
contribute  to  the  collection  a  poem  of  his  own  in  the  old  style,  although 
he  entreated  for  a  continuation  of  the  Squire's  Tale,  in  the  conclusion 
of  which  he  knew  Warton  was  interested,"  and  he  appealed  to  Warton 's 
often  expressed  desire  to  improve  English  poetry  by  a  revival  of  its 
former  imaginative  power.=»  In  reply  to  Percy's  flattering  request, 
Warton  admitted  the  attractiveness  of  the  subject,  but  made  no  promise. 
'I  thank  you  for  thinking  me  qualified  to  complete  Chaucer's  Squire's 
Tale,'  he  wTote.  'The  Subject  is  so  much  in  my  own  way,  that  I  do 
assure  you  I  should  like  to  try  my  hand  at  it.  You  are  certainly  right 
in  thinking  that  the  Public  ought  to  have  their  attention  called  to  Poetry 
in  new  forms ;  to  Poetrj'  endued  with  new  manners  &  new  Images.  '"^ 

On  receipt  of  a  presentation  copy'"  of  the  finished  work,  Warton 
wrote  enthusiastically  to  the  editor: 

.\fter  an  excursion  longer  than  usual,  I  returned  to  Oxford  only  last  Night; 
otherwise  I  should  have  long  since  acknowledged  the  favour  of  your  very  valuable 
and  agreeable  Present.  I  think  you  have  opened  a  new  field  of  Poetry,  and  sup- 
plied many  new  and  curious  Materials  for  the  history  and  Illustration  of  ancient 
English  Literature.  I  have  lately  had  a  Letter  from  Mr.  Walpole,  who  speaks 
in  very  high  terms  of  your  Publication.  At  Oxford  it  is  a  favourite  Work;  and, 
I  doubt  not,  but  it  is  equally  popular  in  Town.  I  hope  you  are  going  on  in  the 
same  Walk.  I  shall  be  happy  to  receive  your  future  Commands.'^ 
Two  months  later  he  was  urging  a  second  edition :    '  I  trust,  the  Taste 

^•Nov.  12,  1762,  fol.  15. 

^'See  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene,  ed.  cit.  L  p.  211. 

-'In  a  postscript  to  a  letter  of  August  26,  1762,  requesting  various  transcripts 
for  'our  Ancient  Songs  &  Ballads'  Percy  wrote,  'Tho'  I  have  trespassed  on  your 
patience  so  monstrously  already,  I  cannot  prevail  on  myself  to  close  up  the  packet 
without  mentioning  a  wish,  which  had  long  been  uppermost  in  my  heart:  it  is — 
that  you  would  undertake  to  complete  Chaucer's  Squire's  Tale.  It  would  be  a 
taske  worthy  of  your  genius,  and  such  as  it  is  every  way  (I  am  persuaded)  equal 
to.  From  some  hints  in  your  book,  vol.  I,  p.  153,  I  conclude  that  your  Imagina- 
tion has  before  now  amused  itself  in  inventing  expedients  to  bring  those  promised 
adi'entures  to  an  issue.  That  pleasing  cast  of  antiquity,  which  distinguished  those 
beautiful  poems  of  yours,  in  ye  late  Collections  of  Oxford  Verses,  &  which  gave 
them  so  great  an  advantage  over  all  others,  would  be  finely  adapted  to  such  an 
undertaking.  And  let  me  add,  nothing  would  fix  your  fame  upon  a  more  solid 
basis,  or  be  more  likely  to  captivate  the  attention  of  the  public,  which  seems  to 
loath  all  the  common  forms  of  Poetry;  &  requires  some  new  species  to  quicken 
its  pall'd  appetite.'    Harv.  MSS.  fols.  10  and  io«. 

^•Winchester,  Sept.  4,  1762,  fol.  11. 

="Which  was  among  the  books  catalogued  for  sale  by  Payne  in  1801. 

"'Trin.  Coll.  Oxon.,  Apr.  29,  1765,  Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  MSS.  no.  32329,  fol.  28. 


67]  ACADEMIC    LIFE  67 

of  the  Public  will  call  for  a  second  Edition  of  yonr  Ballads.  Any 
Improvement  that  shall  occur  to  me,  I  will  gladly  communicate. '^- 

At  the  same  time  that  Percy  was  preparing  his  edition  of  the  bal- 
lads, he  evidently  contemplated  an  edition  of  Spanish  romances  as  an 
illustration  to  Don  Quixote,  but  whether  in  conjunction  with  the  Reliques 
or  as  a  separate  work,  I  cannot  determine.  At  any  rate  "Warton  was 
informed  of  the  project  and  wrote  appro\'ingly :  'I  rejoyce  at  your  col- 
lection of  the  Romances  referred  to  in  Don  Quixote.  It  will  be  a  most 
valuable  &  a  most  proper  Illustration.  Your  Translation  of  the  Metrical 
Pieces  of  Romances  I  hope  you  will  likewise  continue ;  and  I  thank  you 
for  your  admirable  specimen. '^^  As  soon  as  he  learned  of  this  project  he 
sent  Percy  a  rare  and  valuable  edition  of  Septilveda's  Cancionero  de 
Romances^*  and  lamented  that  in  the  dispersal  of  Collins'  librarj'  an- 
other valuable  book,  El  Vendarero  Lucgo  [?],'°  had  been  lost.  The 
most  interesting  point  about  "Warton 's  connection  with  this  project  la 
the  evidence  it  gives  of  his  first-hand  acquaintance  with  the  Spanish 
language  and  with  at  least  a  small  portion  of  its  literature. 

"Warton  was  imraediateh'  informed  of  Percj^'s  next  project,  of  pub- 
lishing The  Household  Book  of  the  Earl  of  Northumberland  in  1512  at 
his  Castles  of  Wressle  and  Leconfield  in  Yorkshire,^^  which  was  under- 
taken at  the  request  of  his  patron,  the  Duke  of  Northumberland;  and 
he   at   once   appreciated   its   value   and   encouraged   the    plan.     'Your 

320xon.  Jun.  IS,  1765,  Harv.  MSS.  fol.  30.  Two  other  letters  contain  similar 
solicitations  about  the  second  edition,  that  of  Nov.  29,  1766  (fol.  28),  quoted 
above,  and  Apr.  21,  1767,  'When  does  the  new  Edition  of  the  Ballads  appear?' 
(fol.  32). 

ssSept.  4,  1762,  fol.  II. 

^*'  "Cancionero  de  Romances  sacados  de  las  coronicas  de  Espana  con  otros. 
compuestos  por  Lorenzo  de  Sepulveda.  En  Sevilla,  1584,  l2nio."  It  is  in  the  short 
Romance  metre.  It  contains  detached  stories  of  the  Feats  of  several  Spanish 
Leaders  &c.  Among  the  rest,  of  the  Cid,  on  whom  Corneille  formed  his  famous 
tragedy.  If  you  have  it  not.  I  will  find  some  method  of  conveying  it  to  you  after 
my  Return  to  Oxford.'  (Ibid.)  Four  years  later  he  presented  the  Cancionero  to 
Percy.     (Fol.  28). 

The  rarity  of  this  edition  is  attested  by  the  fact  that  a  recent  bibliographer 
doubts  its  existence,  but  without  sufficient  cause.  He  says  of  it,  'Encuentro  citada 
esta  edicion  en  la  Historia  de  la  Literatura  espaiiola  de  Ticknor  (I,  39,  4)  No 
he  logrado  confirmar  esta  cita,  que  no  se  encuentra  en  ningun  bibliografo  .  .  que 
tengo  al  menos  por  dudosa.'  See  Escudero  y  Perosso:  Tipografia  HispalenS€, 
Madrid.  1894,  art.  739. 

5=Warton  says  of  this,  'I  remember  my  friend  Collins  used  to  look  upon  "El 
Vendarero  &c"  as  the  most  curious  &  valuable  book  in  his  Collection.  I  think  it 
was  a  thick  quarto,  in  the  short  measure'  (fol.  iia).  I  am  unable  to  find  any 
work  of  similar  title  in  any  Spanish  bibliography. 

''Published  in  1768. 


68  THOJfAS  WAKTON  [68 

Pacqiictt  lias  given  me  liigli  Entertainment',  he  wrote.  'It  will  be  a 
most  eurious  and  valuable  Publication.  If  you  prefix  a  Preface,  it  wiU 
b«»  worth  while  to  introduce  Leland's  Description  of  the  Castle  of  Wress- 
hill,  which  seems  to  have  struck  him  in  a  particular  manner;  aud  which 
he  describes  more  minutely  and  at  length,  than  almost  any  thing  else 
in  bis  whole  Itinerary.  See  Itin.  Vol.  1.  fol.  59,  60.  I  think  I  saw  in 
Pend)r()ke-llall  Library,  at  Cambridge,  a  copy  of  your  manuscript.  At 
least  it  was  a  Book  of  the  same  Kind.  It  was  last  summer;  and  Mr. 
Gray  was  consulting  it,  I  suppose,  for  anecdotes  of  ancient  Manners, 
so  amusing  to  the  Imagination.  .  .  You  may  depend  on  the  utmost  se- 
crecy."" Warton  probably  made  no  real  contributions  to  it,  for  he  wrote 
the  next  year  on  receipt  of  the  proof  of  the  volume,  "Your  Book  never 
reached  me  in  the  Country  (by  means  of  the  Carelessness  of  Bedmakers) 
till  I  had  been  a  long  while  from  Oxford,  &  at  a  time  when  1  was  full 
of  Engagements,  so  as  not  to  be  able  to  sit  down  with  a  Pen  in  my  Hand. 
I  am  now  returned  to  Oxford,  &  fear  it  will  be  now  too  late  for  any 
Notes  that  nuiy  occur.    Give  me  a  Line  on  tliis  Head.'^' 

It  was  during  this  period  that  Warton 's  friendship  with  Dr.  John- 
son was  at  its  height.  Their  friendship  seems  to  have  begun  when  the 
Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  commanded  the  admiration  of  the 
great  classical  critic  in  spite  of  the  reactionary  character  of  its  critical 
tenets.  During  the  summer  following  their  appearance,  Johnson  paid 
his  first  visit  to  Oxford  since  he  had  left  the  university  more  than 
twenty  years  before.  He  lodged  on  this  visit  at  Kettel-Hall  adjoining 
Trinity  College,  and  Warton  acted  as  his  cicerone.  He  showed  him  the 
libraries — which  Johnson  had  ostensibly  come  to  Oxford  to  consult'* — 
and  the  doctor  preferred  the  old  Gothic  hall  at  Trinity  to  the  more 
commodious  modern  libraries,  saying,  'Sir,  if  a  man  has  a  mind  to 
prance,  he  iiuist  study  at  Christ-Church  and  All-Souls.'*"  Together  they 
took  long  walks  into  the  country  about  Oxford,  viewed  some  of  the  ruins 
in  the  vicinity — the  abbies  of  Oseney  and  Rewley — discussed  Warton 's 
favourite  hobby,  Gothic  architecture,  and  agreed  in  their  indignation  at 
the  havoc  wrought  by  the  reformation.  They  frequently  visited  Francis 
Wise,  the  Radclivian  librarian,  at  Ellsfield,  where  Johnson  busied  him- 
self with  their  host's  library  of  'books  in  Northern  Literature,'  and 
Wise  read  them  his  History  and  Chronolotjy  of  the  fabulous  Ages  which 
he  was  preparing  to  print.*'     Both  Warton  and  Wise  were  interested 

"Trin.  Coll.  O.xon.  Jul.  25,  1767,  Harv.  :MSS,  fol.  33. 
''Oxon.  Oct.  24,  1768,  same,  fol.  34. 

'"Warton   .says   that   he    collected   nothing   in   the   libraries    for   his    dictionary 
although  he  stayed  at  0.\ford  five  weeks.     Boswell's  Johnson,  I,  p.  270  and  note. 
^''Ibid.  II,  pp.  67-8,  note. 
*'See  Warton's  account  of  this  visit,  ibid.  I,  p.  271,  ff. 


69]  ACADEMIC    LIFE  69 

in  getting  the  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  bestowed  upon  Johnson  that  it 
might  appear  on  the  title  page  of  the  dictionary  and  be  as  great  an 
hononr  to  Oxford  as  to  Jolmson.''-  Althongli  the  lexicographer  came  to 
Oxford  at  the  beginning  of  the  long  vacation,  he  was  so  charmed  with 
his  visit  and  his  host  that  he  vowed  if  he  came  to  live  at  Oxford,  he 
would  take  up  his  abode  at  Trinity."  Besides  mutual  interest  there  was 
also  a  warm  personal  feeling  between  the  two  men ;  Jolmson  valued 
highly  and  eagerly  sought  the  friendship  of  tlie  younger  man.  Toward 
the  close  of  the  year,  in  one  of  his  occasional  tits  of  melancholy,  intensi- 
fied by  a  reminder  of  the  loss  of  his  wife,  he  wrote  to  Warton,  '  I  would 
endeavour,  by  the  help  of  you  and  your  brotlier,  to  supply  the  want  of 
closer  union,  by  friendsliip.  ''* 

Warton,  however,  although  ready  enough  to  serve  Johnson  in  his 
work,  was  a  negligent  correspondent,  and  a  bus.y,  if  not  a  somewhat 
offish,  friend,  and  Johnson's  letters  are  full  of  reproaches  and  complaints 
of  his  neglect:  'But  wliy  does  my  dear  Mr.  Warton  tell  me  nothing  of 
himself?'*^  'Dear  Blr.  Warton,  let  me  hear  from  you,  and  tell  me  some- 
thing, I  care  not  what,  so  I  hear  it  but  from  you.  .  .  I  have  a  great  mind 
to  come  to  Oxford  at  Easter;  but  you  will  not  invite  me.'"  'You  might 
write  to  me  now  and  then,  if  you  were  good  for  any  tiling.  But  honores 
mutant  mores.  Professors  forget  tlieir  fi-iends. '^"  Notwithstanding  the 
less  frequent  correspondence,  their  literary  friendship  eontinueil ;  War- 
ton  contributed  three  numbers  to  Johnson's  Idler  in  1758**  and  then  and 
later  collected  notes  for  liis  edition  of  Shakespeare,'''*  while  Johnson 
planned  to  interest  Warton  in  extensive  schemes  for  antiquarian  work 
which  was  beyond  his  own  power  to  execute.''"  Their  relations  were 
very  cordial  in  1764  when  Johnson  again  visited  Oxford,  and  promised 
a  longer  visit  'after  Xmas,  when  Shakespeare  is  comjjleted,'^' — a  visit 

«Wooll,  Op.  cit.  p.  228. 

^^Boswell's  Johnson,  I,  p.  272. 

*'>Ihid.  I,  p.  277. 

<^Feb.  4,  I7S5,  Boswell's  Johnson,  I,  p.  279. 

^''Mar.  20,  1755.     Ibid.  1,  p.  283. 

*'June  21,  1757.    Ibid.  I,  p.  322. 

^^Numbers  33,  93,  and  96. 

^^April  14,  1758,  June  i,  1758,  and  June  23,  1770,  Boswell's  Johnson,  I,  pp. 
335-6,  337,  and  11,  pp.  114-3. 

^"Oct.  27,  1757.  This  letter  was  probably  never  sent  to  Warton,  Johnson's 
Letters,  ed.  Hill,  I,  pp.  73-4  and  note. 

^^Warton  to  Percy,  Dec.  5,  1764.  'We  have  had  the  Pleasure  of  Sam  John- 
son's company  at  Oxford,  and  I  find  he  intends  spending  a  long  time  with  us  after 
Xmas,  when  Shakespeare  is  completed.'  (Harv.  MSS.  fol.  29.)  Boswell  has  no 
mention  of  this  visit  to  Oxford,  nor  have  his  editors  noticed  this  letter. 


70  THOMAS  WARTON  [70 

which  was  no  doubt  deferred  when  the  expected  work  was  not  ready  till 
October.  The  friends  probably  met,  however,  at  Winchester,  for  Dr. 
Johnson  visited  Dr.  Warton  there  during  the  summer  of  1765."  Wlien 
Johnson  visited  O.xford  in  17G9,  he  was  exceedingly  busy  and  far  from 
well  but  eager  to  visit  witli  Warton,"  and  in  1776  wlien  he  and  Boswell 
together  returned  to  Oxford,  they  spent  an  evening  with  Warton  at 
Trinity.'* 

At  this  time,  however,  and  always,  Wartou's  principal  devotion 
was  given  to  his  university,  and  he  refused  none  of  her  demands.  On 
the  occasions  of  public  celebrations  Warton  seems  to  have  been  called 
upon  frcfiuently  to  play  a  worthy  part.  For  the  EnciKnia  of  1751  he 
contributed  an  Ode  for  Music,  whieii  was  performed  at  the  Sheldonian 
Tlieatre.  He  was  very  bu.sy  with  tlie  Oxford  Collection  on  the  Royal 
Nuptials  in  1761,"  to  which  he  contributed  some  verses  To  her 
Majesty,''''  and  he  superintended  the  collection  on  the  birth  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales''  the  next  year,  to  which  he  likewise  contributed  a  poem."' 
At  the  time  of  the  great  Encaenia  in  honour  of  peace  in  1763,  he  was 
extremely  busy.'"  Tlie  celebration  lasted  several  days  with  eight  speak- 
ers a  day  and  formal  dinners  in  honour  of  the  distinguished  guests  at 
the  various  haUs.  In  addition  to  preparing  his  own  speech  for  the 
occasion,  Warton,  as  major  domo,  had  charge  of  the  details, — 'the  trou- 
ble I  have  had  in  preparation  is  infinite,'  he  wrote  his  brother,  'but  hope 
all  will  be  repaid  if  it  goes  off  well,  as  I  doubt  not.'"" 

Shortly  after  the  Observations  appeared,  Warton  entered  with  char- 
acteristic loyalty  to  his  college  into  the  preparation  of  a  life  of  its 

"'Wooll,  Op.  cit.  p.  309. 

''May  31.  1769,  Boswell's  Johnson,  11,  p.  68  and  note. 

'■*Ibid.  II,  p.  446. 

"^^Letter  to  Percy,  Nov.  23,  1761,  Harv.  MSS.  fol.  6a. 

=*Ofi  llie  Marriage  of  the  King.    To  her  Majesty.    See  Works,  ed.  cit.  I,  p.  38. 

"'I  am  much  obliged  to  you  for  your  good  opinion  of  my  poetical  talents. 
Such  as  they  are,  they  are  at  present  employed  on  the  Birth  of  the  Prince;  but 
this  is  nothing  to  the  trouble  and  labour  I  have  in  overlooking  &  forming  the  whole 
collection.'    Octob.  20,  1762,  Harv.  MSS.  fol.  12. 

'^*0n  the  Birth  of  the  Prince  of  IVales,  (written  after  the  Installation  at 
Windsor,  in  the  same  year,  1762)  ;  see  IVorks,  I,  p.  46. 

^"He  was  also  engaged  with  the  Encaenia  of  the  preceding  summer,  when 
'the  hurry  of  our  Encxnia  at  Oxford,'  was  one  of  his  excuses  for  delay  in  answer- 
ing a  letter  to  Percy.    London,  Dec.  22,  1763,  Harv.  MSS.  fol.  23. 

oowooll,  Op.  cit.  p.  293.  A  good-natured  but  not  very  brilliant  satire  in  imita- 
tion of  earlier  Terrce-Fillii,  published  during  the  Encjenia,  was  popularly  ascribed 
to  Warton  (see  Lit.  Anec.  VHI,  237),  but  it  is  probable  that  Warton,  if  he  was 
connected  with  it  at  all,  simply  aided  his  friend  Coleman,  the  real  editor.  See 
Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  art.  Coleman. 


71]  ACADEMIC    LIFE  71 

founder,  Sir  Thomas  Pope,  for  the  Biographia  Britannica.'^'^  A  second 
antiquarian  labour  of  love  for  the  college  was  the  life  of  Ralph  Bathurst, 
one  of  the  presidents  of  Trinity,  prefixed  to  a  selection  from  his  works, 
published  in  1761.*-  Both  of  these  biographies  were  compiled  from 
manuscript  materials,  and  were  enlivened,  especially  the  first,  with  di- 
gressions upon  contemporary  history.  In  1772  Warton  published  sepa- 
rately an  enlarged  edition  of  his  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  Pope,"^  and  in  1780 
another  edition  with  further  additions."* 

The  value  of  the  life  of  Pope  as  an  important  source  of  information 
for  the  period  which  it  covers,  because  of  the  fresh  manuscript  material 
which  was  added  to  the  successive  editions,  has  now  been  seriously  im- 
pugned by  the  discovery  that  some  of  the  documents  upon  which  it  is 
based  are  fabrications.  President  Blakiston  has  shown"^  that  quotations 
from  MSS.  Cotton,  Vitellius,  F.  5,  that  is,  to  Machyn's  Diary,  to  which 
"Warton  says  he  gave  a  'cursory  Inspection '°° — sufficient  to  show  him 
that  some  of  the  leaves  had  been  burned  but  not  that  the  manuscript 
was  so  nearly  intact  that  no  considerable  sections  could  have  been  lost 
from  it — and  the  few  quotations  from  alleged  transcripts  from  Machyn's 
Diary  made  by  the  annalist  John  Strype,  are  inaccurate.  He  has  also 
proved  that  tlie  transcriptions  alleged  to  have  been  made  by  Francis  Wise 
from  copies  of  Machyn  made  by  Strype  before  the  fire  and  sent  to  Dr. 
Charlett,  (designated"  by  Warton  as  MSS.  Cotton,  Vitellius.  F.  5  MSS. 
Strype,)  and  from  other  manuscripts  in  Charlett 's  collections  and  from 
the  family  papers  of  Sir  Henry  Pope-Blo\int  (designated  as  MSS.  F. 
Wise)  were  made  from  no  extant  manuscripts,  are  corroborated  by  no 

^'^Or  the  Lives  of  the  Most  Eminent  Persons  who  flourished  in  Great  Britain 
and  Ireland  from  the  earliest  Ages  down  to  the  present  time,  etc.  1747-66.  John 
Campbell,  the  largest  contributor,  to  whom  Warton  sent  his  life  of  Pope,  replied, 
'I  see,  Sir,  you  have  taken  a  great  deal  of  pains  in  that  life,  of  which,  I  will  take 
all  the  care  imaginable.  ...  If  you  can  think  of  any  life  that  will  be  acceptable 
to  yourself,  or  grateful  to  the  University,  I  shall  take  care  and  hand  it  to  the 
press  with  much  satisfaction.'  See  Wooll,  Op.  cit.  p.  241.  Warton  submitted  a  life 
of  Weever,  the  .antiquary,  but  it  does  not  appear  in  the  Biographia.    Ibid.  p.  263. 

"-The  Life  and  Literary  Remains  of  Ralph  Bathurst,  M.D.  .  .  President  of 
Trinity  College  in  Oxford.  .  .  .  London,  1761. 

"^The  Life  of  Sir  Thomas  Pope,  Founder  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford.  Chiefly 
compiled  from  Original  Ezndences.  With  an  appendix  of  Papers  never  before 
printed.  London,  1772.  Percy  gave  slight  assistance  by  examining  the  will  of 
Sir  Thomas  -Dudley  in  the  Prerogative  office,  London.  Warton's  letters  to  Percy, 
Feb.  26  and  April  21,  1767,  Harvard  MSS.  fols.  31  and  32. 

''*The  Second  Edition,  corrected  and  enlarged.  .  .  London,  1780. 

*'H.  E.  D.  Blakiston :  Thomas  JVarton  and  Machyn's  Diary,  English  Histor- 
ical Review.    XI,  pp.  282-300. 

""Life  of  Pope,  Preface,  ed.  1780,  p.  xii. 


72  THOMAS  WARTON  [72 

Other  authorities,  and  are  demonstrably  false  and  misleading  in  some  pre- 
tended facts.  But  Dr.  Blakiston  was  not  content  with  thus  explaining 
the  falirications;  lie  attempted  to  fix  the  blame  for  them  upon  Warton, 
and,  as  it  Sfi-iiis  to  me,  without  sufficient  justification.  All  of  the  positive 
facts  of  the  case  can  be  as  easily  ex])lained  npon  the  theory  that  the 
bioprapiier  himself  was  the  victim  of  a  clever  but  unscrupulous  antiquary 
as  ui)on  the  supposition  that  Warton  was  himself  guilty  of  the  fraud,  for 
it  is  well  known  that  he  was  habitually  assisted  by  other  antiquarians  and 
friends  whose  contributions  he  accepted  without  verification.  Ur.  Blakis- 
ton. however,  seems  to  think  that  when  he  can  exonerate  Wise  by  show- 
in?  that  the  fabrications  were  added  to  the  separate  editions  both 
published  after  his  death,  Warton  is  thereby  proved  guilty ;  the  possibility 
of  a  tliird  person  being  involved  has  not  been  given  by  him  the  con- 
sideration it  deserves. 

Most  of  Dr.  Blakiston 's  reasons  for  fixing  upon  Warton  are  easily 
disposed  of.  That  Warton 's  failure  to  detect  the  fabrications  when  they 
were  offered  him  proves  his  guilt,  is  reasoning  which  almost  equally  con- 
victs every  author  who  has  accepted  these  statements  in  Warton 's  his- 
tory. That  what  Dr.  Blakiston  supposes  the  only  extant  material  for  the 
life  of  Pope  among  Warton 's  voluminous  papers — a  small  note  book — con- 
of  Pope  among  Warton  "s  voluminous  papers — a  small  note  book — eon- 
tains  no  reference  to  the  disputed  passages,""  of  course  proves  nothing. 
That  the  fabrications  appeared  gradually  is,  as  Dr.  Blakiston  says, 
'highly  suspicious',  but  does  not  indicate  whom  one  is  to  suspect.  Two 
of  his  reasons""  are  more  soundly  based  upon  Warton 's  known  faults 
of  occasional  inaccuracy  of  statement  or  quotation  in  some  details  of  his 
extensive  works.  These  faults  would  be  more  reprehensible  even  in  an 
eighteenth  century  antiquary  were  it  possible  for  his  critics — from  Rit- 
son  to  Blakiston"" — to  free  themselves  from  it, — and  they  show  how 
easy  a  victim  he  would  become  of  a  malicious  practical  joker. 

Moreover,  in  the  absence  of  conclusive  evidence  for  so  grave  a 
charge,  great  weight  must  be  given  to  the  character  of  the  accused.  It 
must  be  shown  that  such  a  deception  is  quite  in  keeping  with  his  charac- 
ter, that  it  is  not  only  possible  but  probable  that  he  was  guilty  of  the 
forgery  attributed  to  him.     And  such  evidence  is  altogether  wanting 

•'Another  book  of  notes  upon  the  life  of  Pope,  at  Winchester  College,  like- 
wise does  not  refer  to  the  fabrications. 

"'That  he  exaggerated  the  damage  to  the  Machyn  manuscript  and  printed 
fabrications  of  letters  supposed  to  be  in  Trinity  College  Library.  To  the 
latter  of  course  Warton  had  easy  access,  and  he  entirely  personally  consulted 
them ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  possible  that  transcripts  were  made  by  another  and  less 
veracious  hand. 

""For  example  the  first  separate  edition  of  the  life  of  Pope  was  published  in 
1772,  not  1770,  as  he  says.    His  most  serious  blunder  is  discussed  later. 


73]  ACADEMIC    LIFE  73 

in  this  case.  It  is  a  striking  coincidence  that  Dr.  Blakiston  has  selected 
as  a  principal  reason  for  accusing  Warton,  as  an  alleged  motive  or  sug- 
gestion for  the  deception,  a  circumstance  that,  on  the  contrar}^  fur- 
nishes a  conspicuous  proof  of  his  honesty:  namely,  his  connection  with 
the  Rowley-Chatterton  forgeries.  Warton,  he  says,  'was  himself  engaged 
about  1778,  when  he  must  have  put  the  finishing  touches  to  [some  of  the 
Pope  fabrications],  in  defending  the  authenticity  of  the  Rowley  poems,' 
and  he  further  suggests  that  Warton  was  tempted  to  make  a  similar 
experiment,  in  whicli,  from  his  knowledge  of  early  English  literature, 
he  was  more  likely  to  succeed  than  Wise,  a  'mere  antiquarian'.'"  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  in  1778,  as  well  as  in  1772  and  1782,  Warton  was  engaged, 
not  in  defending  the  authenticity  of  the  poems,  but  in  rejecting  them 
as  spurious.  Moreover  his  tiioroughly  honest  conclusion  in  this  matter 
is  the  more  commendable  and  significant  in  this  connection  because  it 
not  only  was  reached  in  opposition  to  popular  opinion,  but  was  unwel- 
come to  himself.  In  spite  of  his  own  inclination  to  credit  Chatterton's 
tale,  Warton  was  the  first  scholar  who  ventured  to  put  himself  on 
record  as  denying  the  authenticity  of  the  poems.  His  openminded  and 
scholarly  treatment  of  the  facts  in  this  matter,  in  which  some  deference 
to  personal  bias  might  have  been  excused,  seems  to  make  improbable 
to  the  point  of  impossibility  any  deliberate  tampering  with  facts  in  an 
historical  treatise.  When  he  gives  such  conspicuous  evidence  of  open- 
mindedness  and  candour  in  the  treatment  of  this  question,  it  is  scarcely 
credible  that  he  could  be  at  the  same  time  engaged  in  forging  so  gratu- 
itous and  useless  a  deception  as  the  Strype  forgeries. 

From  the  time  that  Warton  had  taken  his  first  degree  in  1747,  he 
had  been  a  tutor  in  Trinity  College,  of  which  he  became  a  fellow  four 
years  later,  and  he  served  his  university  as  faithfully  in  this  capacity 
as  in  more  prominent  ones.  Although  he  did  a  remarkably  large  amount 
of  literary  and  antiquarian  work,  he  regarded  himself  rather  as  an 
Oxford  don  than  as  a  man  of  letters.  Although  no  one  probably  made 
better  use  of  his  academic  leisure,  he  always  put  his  collegiate  duties 
first :  the  work  upon  Spenser  was  neglected  and  finally  abandoned  while 

'"p.  299.  Dr.  Blakiston's  source  for  this  mistake  is  the  Dictionary  of  Na- 
tional Biography  article  on  Chatterton.  It  is  unfortunate  that  in  an  attack  on  the 
accuracy  of  another  historian  he  did  not  verify  and  thereby  correct  that  very  mis- 
leading mention  of  Warton's  connection  with  the  controversy  by  reference  to  the 
original  documents,  the  second  volume  of  the  Hiitory  of  English  Poetry,  1778, 
(PP-  139-164,  and  Emendations  to  p.  164)  and  Warton's  Enquiry  into  the  Authen- 
ticity of  the  Poems  attributed  to  Rowley,  1782,  in  which  he  reviews  his  connection 
with  it,  pp.  1-6. 


74  THOMAS  WAKTON  [74 

he  devoted  himself  to  his  pupils;"  aud  at  the  special  request  of  Lord 
North,  who  had  been  his  contemporary  at  Trinity,  he  took  his  son  under 
his  special  eiiarge  from  1774  to  1777,  relinquishing  his  other  pupils 
during  that  time,"  and  neglecting  somewhat  his  work  upon  the  history 
of  poetry.  As  a  tutor  he  was  at  least  popular,  forming  lasting  and 
bent-lieiai  friendships  with  some  of  his  pupils,  with  Topham  Beauclerk 
and  Benuft  Langton,  who  came  up  to  Oxford  soon  after  the  interruption 
of  the  Spt-nsL-rian  design,  and  with  "William  Lisle  Bowles,  who  had 
known  Warton  at  Winclu-ster  and  selected  Trinity  on  his  account,  and 
upon  whose  poetry  Warton  exercised  some  influence. 

As  a  professor  Warton  was  more  active  in  his  earlier  than  in  his 
later  years.  Lord  Eldon,  who  was  a  member  of  University  College  from 
1766  to  1773,  says  that  'poor  Tom  Warton'  used  to  send  to  his  pupils 
at  the  beginning  of  every  term  'to  know  whether  they  would  wish  to 
attend  lecture  that  term,"'  but  Mant  lamented  that  in  bis  later  years 
when  he  was  professor  of  history,  he  'suffered  the  "rostrum  to  grow 
cold"  '.'*  However,  his  strongest  claim  to  the  regius  professorship  of 
modern  history  was  that  he  was  willing  to  deliver  the  lectures  which 
George  III  was  aroused  to  demand  while  liis  rival  wished  to  hold  the 
appointment  as  a  sinecure. 

In  1757  Warton  was  elected  by  his  university  to  succeed  William 
Hawkins  of  Pembroke  in  the  office  which  his  father  had  formerly  held, 
the  professorship  of  poetry,  aud  he  was  reelected  at  the  expiration  of  his 
first  term  of  office  in  1762.  As  poetry  professor  Warton  devoted  his 
lectures  chiefly  to  recommending  and  expounding  the  beauties  of  clas- 
sical poetry.  One  of  these  lectures,  a  Latin  discourse  on  Greek  pastoral 
poetry,  was  afterwards  enlarged  to  serve  as  a  prefatory  discourse  to  his 
edition  of  Theocritus."  The  Latin  translations  from  Greek  poems  which 
were  included  in  the  last  edition  of  his  poetry  were  made  and  first  used 
as  illustrations  of  his  subject  in  this  course  of  lectures.'^  The  most 
substantial  outgrowth  of  his  studies  as  poetry  professor,  however,  was 
his  editions  of  classical  poetry.  The  first  was  a  small  edition  of  Inscrip- 
tioimm  Romanarum  Metricarum  Delectus,''^  a  selection  of  inscriptions, 

'^Sul>ra.  A  letter  from  his  brother  shows  that  he  abandoned  an  important 
business  trip  to  London  with  his  brother  during  the  long  vacation  in  1754  because 
of  his  duty  to  a  pupil.  See  Wooll,  p.  233,  where  the  letter  is  misdated  1755. 
Joseph's  removal  to  Tunworth,  alluded  to  in  the  letter  as  imminent,  was  made  in 
I7S4. 

'-Mant,  Op.  cit  pp.  Ixxiv-Ixxv. 

''Boswell's  Johnson,  I,  p.  279,  note. 

'<Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  Ixxxiv. 

"Ibid.  p.  xli. 

'»I758. 


75]  ACADEMIC    LIFE  75 

chiefly  sepulchral,  from  various  other  collections,  and  including  a  few 
modern  epigrams,  one  by  Dr.  Jortin  and  five  of  his  own  on  the  classical 
model."  This  edition,  which,  with  characteristic  indifference  to  fame, 
was  published  anonymously,  was  quite  small  and  had  so  slight  a  popu- 
larity that  twenty  years  after  its  publication  it  was  almost  unknown,  and 
had  become  so  rare  that  the  author  himself  wanted  a  copy  of  it.'* 

Contemporary  opinion  varied  as  to  its  merits.  Shenstone  called  it 
'rather  too  simple,  even  for  my  taste. "^  George  Coleman  was  more 
enthusiastic  and  wrote  to  the  author,  'You  know,  I  suppose,  that  the 
Inscriptiones  Romanae,  &e.  are  your's.  They  have,  I  find,  been  sent  to 
all  the  literati.  Dr.  Markham,  Bedingfield,  Garriek,  &c.  They  are  very 
well  spoken  of;  Markham  in  particular  commended  them  much,  and 
master  Francklin  is  held  mighty  cheap  for  his  very  unclassical  review 
of  them.""  James  Harris  was  no  doubt  referring  to  the  same  work 
when  he  wrote,  'Be  pleas 'd  to  accept  my  sincerest  wishes  for  your  truly 
laudable  endeavours  towards  the  revival,  the  preservation,  and  the  en- 
crease  of  good  taste ;  not  that  phantom  bearing  its  name,  imported  by 
Petit  Maitres  from  France,  but  that  real  and  animating  form  which 
guided  the  geniuses  at  Athens.'*'  A  similar  work  was  a  collection  of 
Greek  inscriptions,  an  edition  of  Cephalas's  A^ithology.^- 

The  great  work  of  Warton  's  professorship  was,  however,  the  edition 
of  Theocritus  on  which  he  was  engaged  at  the  time  the  Inscriptionum 
was  published,*'  and  for  which  he  laid  aside  all  other  literary  work,** 

^'Mant,  p.  xHi.  The  Latin  epigrams  are  included  in  Mant's  edition  of  Warton's 
poems,  volume  II. 

'•"See  Lit.  Anec,  VIII,  p.  476  and  III,  p.  427. 

^"Shenstone's  Works,  ed.  1777,  III,  p.  284. 

8OW00II,  Op.  cit.  p.  258. 

^^Ibid.  pp.  260-1. 

*»I766. 

*'Cowper  to  Gough,  Nov.  26,  1758.  'You  have  heard  (no  doubt)  that  the 
Republic  of  Letters  is  in  great  expectation  of  a  good  edition  of  Theocritus  from 
Mr.  Warton,  the  Poetry  Professor.  His  plan  is,  to  give  us  a  correct  text,  with 
critical  and  explanatory  notes.'  Lit.  Anec.  VIII,  p.  562.  In  the  preface  to  the 
Anthology  the  Theocritus  was  definitely  promised,  p.  x.xxvi.  See  also  WooU,  p. 
267. 

'^Nov.  29,  1766  Warton  wrote  to  Percy,  'The  History  of  English  Poetry 
is  at  present  laid  aside  for  the  Publication  of  Theocritus,  which  is  nearly  finished ;' 
(Harv.  MSS.  fol.  28)  two  years  later  the  Theocritus  was  still  occupying  him 
although  he  was  eager  to  be  at  the  History.  'My  Theocritus,'  he  wrote  Oct.  24 
1768,  'will  soon  be  published;  and  when  I  am  released  [?]  from  that  work,  I  hope 
to  be  able  to  make  another  Excursion  into  Fairy-Land.'    Same  MSS.  fol.  34. 


76  THOMAS  WARTON  [76 

but  wliich  did  not  appear  until  1770."  The  fact  that  Theocritus  had 
long  been  a  favourite  aiitlior  with  Warton'"  no  doubt  influenced  the 
selection  of  that  autlior,  but  the  immediate  cause  was  very  likely  the 
large  collection  of  nninuscripts  which  John  St.  Amand,  a  classical  anti- 
quary, iiad  collected  in  Italy  and  elsewhere  for  a  proposed  edition 
of  Theocritus  and  whicli  he  bequeathed  to  the  Bodleian  Library." 
Warton  also  received  assistance  in  the  publication  of  Theocritus 
from  Jonathan  Toup,  whom  Warburton  called  the  'first  Greek  scholar 
in  Europe'.""  His  principal  contribution  was  an  epistle  on  some 
of  the  Idyllia,""  but  he  also  sent  a  number  of  briefer  notes.^"  Warton 
repaid  Toup's  kindness  not  only  by  contributions  to  the  edition  of  Lon- 
guuis  which  Toup  was  even  at  that  time  engaged  upon,^^  but  by  seeing 
it  through  the  press."-    The  edition  of  Theocritus  was  very  highly  praised 

8=The  editor  confidently  expected  it  two  years  earlier.  See  letter  to  Jonathan 
Toup,  May  2,  1768.  'We  are  now  printing  the  Notes  of  the  XVth  Idyllium;  and 
as  no  sort  of  Interruption  will  intervene,  tlie  Work  will  be  ready  for  Publication 
by  or  before  Christmas  next.'     Bodleian  Library,  MSS.  Clar.  Pr.  C.  13,  f.  109. 

'"Mant,  p.  xliv,  and  preface  to  Theocritus. 

"Mant,  p.  xliv.     St.  Amand  died  in  1754. 

^Wict.  Nat.  Biog.  article  Toup. 

"Printed  at  the  end  of  Warton's  notes. 

""Printed  with  Warton's. 
Dear  Sir 

I  have  received  the  Note,  which  is  very  curious  and  ingenious.  If  you  please, 
as  we  arc  not  yet  got  to  the  Dioscuri,  I  will  insert  it  in  its  proper  place,  with  due 
Acknowledgement  as  coming  from  you ;  as  I  have  all  along  done  with  those 
detached  Notes  you  have  sent  me,  not  belonging  to  the  Epistola. 

I  shall  be  extremely  glad  to  hear  from  you  as  often  as  possible,  &  am.  Dear  Sir, 

With  great  Truth,  yrs.  very  sincerely, 
Oxon.  Mar.  30,  1768.  I.  Warton. 

Bodlein  Library,  MSS.  Clar.  Pr.  C.  14,  fol.  162. 

"' 'The  World  is  in  great  Expectation  of  your  Longinus ;  &  I  should 

be  glad  if  you  could  inform  mc,  when  we  are  likely  to  be  favoured  with  so 
valuable  an  accession  to  Grecian  Literature.'    May  2,  1768,  Clar.  Pr.  C.  13,  f.   109. 

"^No  slight  service,  if  we  may  judge  from  the  following  letter. 
Dear  Sir 

In  placing  Rhunhinius's  Notes  first,  we  have  acted  according  to  your  own 
Directions  in  a  Letter  which  I  inclose.  If  you  mean  to  alter  your  first  Design 
specified  in  this  Letter,  and  to  place  your  own  Notes  after  the  Text,  two  or  three 
Sheets,  (now  worked  off)  must  be  cancelled.  I  have  stopped  the  Press  till  I  hear 
from  you  on  this  Particular.  The  Cancelling  will  be  attended  with  some  little 
Expence  &  Delay;  but  if  you  chose  to  have  it  done,  I  will  propose  it  to  the  Board. 
I  am,  Dear  Sir, 

Your  most  affectionate 
Trin.  Coll.  Feb.  4,  1777.  humble  servt. 

P.  S.     Please  to  return  the  Inclosed.  T.  Warton. 

Clar.  Pr.  13,  fol.  83.    See  also  WooU,  pp.  318,  319,  364,  and  377. 


77]  ACADEMIC    LIFE  77 

by  Wartou's  friends  upon  its  publication;  Toup  called  it  'the  best  pub- 
lication that  evei*  came  from  the  Clarendon  Press ;  ''*■■'  but  foreign  scholars 
immediately  discovered  its  defects  in  precision,  and  it  has  now  been 
entirely  superseded."* 

Almost  immediately  upon  the  expiration  of  his  second  term  as  pro- 
fessor of  poetry,  Wartou  began  making  attempts  to  secure  the  Professor- 
ship of  Modern  History,  and  Bishop  Warburton  was  particularly  active 
in  his  behalf.  Before  Warton's  name  was  proposed,"''  however,  tlie  office 
had  been  awarded  to  Mr.  Vivian,  upon  his  agreeing  to  comply  with  the 
King's  demand  that  it  should  no  longer  be  held  as  a  sinecure.  A  little 
more  than  a  year  later  Vivian  was  very  ill ;  the  false  rumour  of  his  death 
revived  the  hopes  of  Warton's  friends,  and  fresh  efforts  were  made. 
The  uncertainty  as  to  Mhether  or  not  Vivian  would  give  up  his  preten- 
sions to  the  office*"  and  refuse  to  read  lectures  in  conformity  with  the 
King's  condition,"'  kept  them  in  a  continual  excitement,  in  which  War- 
ton  seems  to  have  shared  least  of  all.  When  finall.v  the  professorship 
was  again  settled  upon  Vivian,  Warburton  wrote  in  commendation  of 
the  manner  in  which  he  accepted  tlie  disappointment,  at  the  same  time 
assuring  him  that  Vivian's  health  was  sure  to  create  a  vacancy  in  the 
office  soon."*  Warton's  delicacy,  or  indolence,  was,  however,  greater 
than  the  Bishop  of  Gloucester's,  and  he  delayed  until  Vivian  was  actually 
dead  before  approaching  Grafton  and  North  for  his  office.  This,  in 
the  opinion  of  Warburton  at  least,  cost  him  the  office,""  which  went  to 

"^Mant,  p.  xliii, 

^*Dict.  Nat.  Biog.    Article  Warton. 

"5Wooll,  Op.  cit.  pp.  337-8. 

"«/6irf.  p.  355. 

"'Warburton  to  T.  Warton,  Feb.  15,  1770.  .  .  'It  is  as  clear  as  the  day  that 
Vivian  hangs  on  the  professorship,  in  hopes  that  these  distracted  times,  and  a 
shifting  Ministry,  will  throw  it  into  his  hands,  without  the  burthen.  Your  only 
hope  now  is  the  steadiness  of  the  K.'s  purpose.  .  .  If  Vivian  will  read  lectures  as 
required,  without  doubt  he  will  have  the  professorship.  If  he  will  not  read,  and 
declines  the  condition,  and  the  King  insists  on  the  performance,  you  will  have  it. 
If  the  report  of  Vivian's  death  had  been  true,  I  had  secured  it  for  you.'  Wooll, 
pp.  360-1. 

"*/6irf.  p.  363. 

""Warburton  to  Warton,  March  13th,  1771.  .  .  'I  take  it  for  granted  you  was 
grown  very  indifferent  to  this  professorship,  or  that  you  would  have  seen  me  on 
Sunday  (I  was  only  gone  to  the  Chapel)  that  I  might  have  wrote  immediately  to 
the  D.  of  Grafton,  who  had  actually  got  the  thing  for  you  of  the  King,  in  the 
supposition  of  the  death  of  Vivian.    That  report  proved  false.    So  our  labour  was 


78  THOMAS  WABTON  [78 

Thomas  Nowell,"""  who  retained  it  imtil  his  death  in  1801.  This  is  the 
last  university  honour  which  Warton  sought.  In  1785  he  w-as,  however, 
elected  Camden  Professor  of  Ancient  History  in  recognition  of  his 
merits  and  the  honours  he  had  conferred  upon  the  university.  Warton 
was  not  so  active  in  the  prosecution  of  his  course  in  ancient  history  as 
he  had  been  in  that  of  poetry  thirty  years  earlier,  and  he  probably  never 
delivered  any  lectures  after  his  inaugural  one. 

to  begin  again.  But  as  I  now  understand  Vivian  lay  a  dying  for  some  time,  that 
was  the  time  when  you  should  have  begun  your  new  application.  You  sat  out, 
in  every  sense,  too  late.  .  .  I  believe  I  am  more  vexed  and  disappointed  than  you 
are:  and  not  a  little  of  my  vexation  falls  upon  yourself;  or  at  least,  would  fall, 
if  I  did  not  think  you  must  needs  be  very  indifferent  about  the  matter.  Perhaps, 
all  things  considered,  you  may  have  good  reason  for  being  so.'    Wooll,  pp.  374-5. 

'""Nowell  seems  to  have  been  upon  another  occasion  the  successful  applicant 
for  an  office  sought  by  Warton.    Ibid.  p.  268. 


CHAPTER  V 
The  History  op  English  Poetky.    Volume  I,  1774. 

The  Triumph  op  Romance. 

Before  the  expiration  of  his  term  as  professor  of  poetry,  Warton 
was  again  at  work  in  the  field  of  English  literature,  from  which  his 
interest  had  been  only  partly  and  temporarily  distracted  by  his  classical 
studies.  He  now  began  working  seriously  upon  his  magnum  opus,  the 
History  of  English  Poetry.  This  work  had  no  doubt  been  more  or  less 
definitelj'  projected  ever  since  his  studies  for  the  Observations  on  the 
Faerie  Queene  had  shown  him  the  possibilities  of  the  subject  and  the 
large  amount  of  material  available  for  it;  he  had  indeed  partly  fore- 
shadowed it  in  a  brief  resume  of  the  subject  in  his  first  important  work. 

Two  eighteenth  century  poets  before  Warton  had  undertaken  to 
supply  the  need  for  a  history  of  English  poetrj^  and  had  abandoned 
their  attempts  after  doing  little  more  than  outline  their  projects.  Dur- 
ing the  two  preceding  centuries  a  number  of  works  dealing  more  or  less 
directly  with  the  subject  had  appeared, — discourses  on  English  poetry 
with  some  account  of  the  lives  of  the  poets,  and  collections  of  lives  of 
the  famous  men  of  England  including  the  poets;  the  small  number  of 
such  attempts  is  not  so  striking  as  the  poor  quality  of  even  the  best 
results.  What  passed  in  the  seventeenth  century  for  a  history  of  poetry 
was  a  sort  of  miscellanj'  or  compendium  of  anecdotes  of  the  lives  of  poets 
arranged  alphabetically  rather  than  chronologically,  without  historical 
perspective  and  M'ith  no  critical  value.  The  tradition  of  Philips,  Win- 
stanley  and  Langbaine  was  carried  on  in  the  eighteenth  century  by 
Jacob,  Tanner  and  Gibber,  whose  'dictionaries  of  Poets'  differed  scarcely 
at  all  from  the  catalogues  from  which  they  were  copied. 

Pope  and  Gray  in  their  plans  for  a  history  of  poetry,  avoided  this 
error  by  arranging  their  subjects  into  so-called  'schools'  of  poetry,  a 
procedure  of  somewhat  questionable  wisdom  in  the  absence  of  any  chron- 
ological history  of  the  subject.  It  remained  for  Warton  therefore  to 
attempt  and  to  bring  to  an  advanced  stage  of  completion  the  first  orderly 
history  of  English  poetry,  and  thereby,  in  spite  of  the  obvious  imper- 
fections of  his  work,  to  transform  the  growing  curiosity  of  the  eight- 
eenth century  antiquarian  into  the  historical  study  of  the  nineteenth 
century  scholar. 

79 


80  THOMAS  WARTON  [80 

As  early  as  1765  Warton's  plan  had  proceeded  so  far  that  he  wrote 
to  IVrcy,  '1  think  1  liave  told  you  that  I  am  writing  The  History  of 
English  I'oitry,  which  has  never  yet  been  done  at  large,  and  in  form. 
My  Materials  are  almost  ready."  The  following  year,  however,  the  work 
was  laid  aside  for  his  edition  of  Thcocritis-  which  occupied  him  longer 
than  he  anticipated.  His  letters  to  Percy  show  his  eagerness  to  be  at 
the  more  congenial  work,  in  which  Percy's  interest  and  the  success  of 
his  licliqucs  helped  to  encourage  him:  'My  Theocritus  will  soon  be 
publisiied ;  and  when  I  am  released  [  ?]  from  that  Work,  I  hope  to  be 
able  to  make  another  Excursion  into  Fairy-Land.  My  Encouragement 
is  having  such  a  Companion  as  you  in  my  Rambles  there. '^ 

As  soon  as  it  became  known  among  Warton's  friends  that  he  was 
undertaking  this  important  work,  they  were  eager  to  help  with  it.  Their 
assistance  was  graciously  accepted  and  it  considerably  facilitated  the 
stupenilous  undertaking.  Farmer  immediately  offered  a  'pretty  large 
Spenserian  pacquet'  and  later  asked  for  a  'job  on  the  History';*  Hurd 
engaged  to  get  Gray 's  plan  for  comparison  with  his  own  and  commended 
the  'noble  design';''  Garrick  not  only  eagerlj'  offered  the  use  of  his 
valuable  collection  of  old  plays  and  romances,  but  even  sent  them  down 
to  Oxford  to  be  used" — a  favour  which  Dr.  Johnson  complained  had  not 
been  granted  him.'  Percy,  eager  to  repay  Warton's  help  with  the  bal- 
lads, became  a  valuable  contributor,^  especially  to  the  second  volume ; 
and  Warton's  Oxford  friends,  Price  and  Wise,  besides  many  nameless 
helpers  and  emanuenses,  helped  with  the  compilations. 

Warton  spent  many  years  collecting  the  materials  for  his  history,  a 
task  incomparably  more  difficult  than  it  now  appears  because  of  the 
virtual  inaccessibilitj'  of  old  books  and  manuscripts.    Manuscripts  were 

•Oxon.  Jun.  15,  1765,  Harv.  MSS.  fol.  30. 

=Nov.  29.  1766,  Ibid.  fol.  28. 

»Oct.  24,  1768,  Ibid.  fol.  34. 

'Letters  of  Nov.  19,  1766  and  Feb.  13,  1770.    Wooll,  Op.  cit.  pp.  315,  359. 

"Letter  of  Sept.  15,  1769.    Ibid.  pp.  348-9. 

"Letter  of  June  29,  1769.    Ibid.  p.  346. 

'Preface  to  Shakespeare,  Johnson's  Works,  Lynam  ed.    V,  p.  138. 

"Warton  was  careful  not  to  hinder  Percy's  plans  for  publication  by  a  previous 
use  of  his  material,  and  wrote;  'I  shall  be  much  obliged  to  you  if  you  could  send 
about  40  Lines,  transcribed  as  a  specimen,  of  Sir  Launfall,  written  by  Chester, 
temp.  Hen.  vi.  Perhaps  you  intend  that  piece  for  publication  :  but  such  a  Specimen 
would  advertise  your  design ;  &  I  would  mention  your  intention,  with  due  ac- 
knowledgement &  recommendation.  But  if  this  breaks  in  upon  any  scheme  of 
your's,  I  dont  ask  it.'  (Winchester,  Sept.  28,  1769,  Harv.  MSS.  fol.  36).  Per- 
mission to  publish  was  given,  and  Warton  printed  42  lines  from  the  beginning 
and  6  from  the  conclusion,  with  acknowledgement  to  Percy,  in  the  second  volume 
of  his  history,  p  102,  note. 


81]  HISTORY    OP    ENGUSH    POETKY,   VOL.    I  81 

widely  st-attered  through  eatlicdral  and  follege  libraries,  private  and 
public  collections,  the  Bodleian  Library  and  the  then  recently  founded 
British  Museum ;  moreover  all  .such  collections  were  very  poorly  cata- 
logued, so  that  finding  a  wantetl  book  or  manuscript  frequently  meant 
actually  ransacking  a  wiiole  collection,  and  so  little  order  prevailed  among 
them  that  Warton  complained  that  he  was  unable  to  find  again  a  book  that 
he  had  once  consulted.''  Wartou  had  the  added  difficulty  as  a  pioneer  that 
he  had  no  training,  little  experience,  and  few  examjjles  in  the  use  of 
manuscripts:  he  was  unskilled  in  old  hands,  and  liad  no  exact  knowledge 
of  the  early  forms  of  the  language.  His  tremendous  energy  and  bound- 
less enthusiasm  for  the  task,  however,  enabled  him  to  overcome  these 
difficulties  pretty  successfully.  It  was  his  custom  to  make  his  notes  as 
he  could  procure  the  material  he  needed ;  nothing  that  could  be  made 
to  serve  his  purpose  was  overlooked ;  and  he  accumulated  many  volumes 
of  manuscript  copy-books  of  miscellaneous  notes  for  liis  historj-'"  before 
he  began  its  actual  composition.  His  vacations  were  partly  devoted  to 
his  work.  Upon  his  annual  rambles  he  w'as  on  the  look-out  for  literary 
as  well  as  architectural  treasures,  and  he  was  sometimes  rewarded  with 
a  'find'  that  would  make  a  modern  bibliophile  green  with  envy.  For 
example,  he  'picked  up  .  .  in  a  petty  shop  at  Salisbury,  where  books, 
bacon,  red-herring,  and  old  iron  were  exposed  to  sale'  a  third  edition  of 
Venus  Olid  Adonis^^  'bound  up  with  many  coeval  small  poets'  into  'a 
Dutch-built  but  dwarfish  volume. ''- 

He  habitually  spent  his  vacations  with  his  brother  at  Winchester, 
and  there  he  settled  down  to  the  actual  composition  of  his  history.  There 
he  had  ample  leisure  and,  if  not  the  most  favourable  library  facilities,  at 
least  the  advantage  of  the  sympathetic  criticism  of  his  most  congenial 
friend,  his  brother. 

By  1769  he  had  amassed  nearly  all  of  the  material  and  the  edition 
of  Thfocritits  was  so  far  out  of  the  way  that  he  expected  to  proceed 
rapidl}'  with  the  history.  '1  am  sitting  down  in  good  Earnest  to  write 
the  History  of  English  Poetry',  he  wrote  to  Percy  in  July  from  Oxford. 

''I  have  searched  in  vain  for  Marlowe's  Dido  with  the  Elegy  among  Tanner's 
Books  which  are  squeezed  into  a  most  incommodious  room,  covered  with  dust, 
unclassed,  and  without  a  catalogue.  Such  is  the  confused  and  impracticable  State 
of  this  Collection,  that  1  have  often  been  unable  to  find  a  book  a  second  time 
which  I  have  seen  not  half  a  year  before.  .  .  .  My  friend  Mr.  Price  of  the  Bod- 
leian talks  of  a  Catalogue  to  Tanner's  Books,  but  I  fear  it  is  at  a  distance.'  Letter 
to  Edmund  Malone,  Jun.  22d.  1781,  Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  MSS.  30375,  no.  i. 

'"Of  which  many  are  still  to  be  seen  in  Trinity  College  Library,  Oxford,  and 
at  Winchester  College.     The  handwriting  is  very  difficult,  often  really  illegible. 

''1596.  It  is  called  the  second  by  Malone,  in  the  preface  to  his  Shakespeare, 
p.  Ixii. 

'^Letter  to  Malone,  Mar.  19,  1785,  B.  M.  MSS.  .\dd.  30375,  no.  2. 


go  THOMAS  WARTON  [82 

'  It  will  be  a  large  work ;  but  as  variety  of  materials  have  been  long  col- 
lected, it  will  be  soon  completed."'  At  the  close  of  his  summer's  work  on 
it  at  Winchester  he  reported  'a  very  considerable  progress  in  [his] 
work.''*  Early  the  following  year  Gray  sent  Wartou,  at  Kurd's  re- 
quest, tile  sketcii  of  his  own  plan  for  a  similar  work,  which  he  had 
readily  relinquished  on  hearing  of  Warton's  project.  Either  because 
of  modesty  or  indolence  he  sent  no  materials  for  the  work,  but  only  a 
short  'sketch  of  the  division  and  arrangement  of  the- subjects.'  This 
included  an  introduction  'on  the  poetry  of  the  Galic'  and  Gothic  nations, 
and  four  principal  parts:  the  School  of  Provence,  Chaucer  and  his 
contemporaries,  two  later  Italian  schools  and  Spenser,  and  the  French 
scliool  introduced  after  the  Restoration.  The  design,  as  he  said,  was 
partly  taken  from  Pope's  plan.'^  Although  Warton's  first  volume  was 
by  this  time  almost  ready  for  the  press,  having  been  written  according 
to  his  own  different  plan,  he  promptly  acknowledged  the  merits  of 
Gray's  plan.  At  the  same  time  he  pointed  out  that  he  had  followed 
a  more  strictly  chronological  division  of  the  subject,  interspersed  with 
general  views,  'as  perliaps  of  a  pnrticular  species  of  poetry  &e.  .  .  in- 
terwoven into  the  tenour  of  the  work,  without  interrupting  my  historical 
series.'" 

Warton  's  work  with  the  history  was  now  proceeding  rapidly,  though 
it  was  not,  as  Gray  was  told,  already  in  the  press  at  the  time  he  sent 
Wharton  his  plan.  During  the  summer  vacation  at  Winchester  Warton 
made  such  progress  that  he  wrote  again  to  Percy,  'My  Opus  Magnum 
goes  on  swimmingly.  We  shall  go  to  Press  in  October.'"  Another 
distracting  interval  delayed  its  progress,  however,  for  four  years  longer. 
The  final  work  was  done  at  Winchester  in  the  summer  vacation  of  1773. 
Immediately  after  his  arrival  Warton  wrote  to  his  friend  Price,  'I  am 
now  recollecting  my  scattered  Thoughts,  &  sitting  down  to  complete  the 
first  volume  of  the  History  of  English  Poetry,  which  is  to  be  published 
before  next  Christmas.'^' 

In  the  following  year,  1774,  the  long-expected  first  volume  appeared 
with  this  title:  The  History  of  English  Poetry,  from  the  Close  of 
the  Eleventh  to  the  Commencement  of  the  Eighteenth  Century.    To 

"Trin.  Coll.  O.xon.,  Jul.  4,  1769.    Harv.  MSS.  fol.  35. 

"Winchester,  Sep.  28,  1769.  Same  MSS.  fol.  36.  He  added,  'your  generous 
offer  of  any  thing  you  have,  gives  me  great  Encouragement,  &  will  be  gratefully 
remembered.' 

"Gray's  letter  of  April  15,  1770  is  given  almost  in  full  in  Chalmers'  English 
Poets,  XVIII,  pp.  79-80. 

"Winchester  College,  Apr.  20,  1770,  Ibid.  p.  81. 

"Winton.  Sept.  13,  1770,  Harv.  MSS.  fol.  38. 

"Winton.  Aug.  16,  1773,  Bodleian  MSS.  Auto.  d.  4,  fol.  5. 


83]  HISTORY   OP   ENGLISH   POETRY,   VOL.    I  83 

which  are  prefixed  Two  Dissertations.  I  On  the  Origin  of  Romantic 
Fiction  in  Europe;  II  On  the  Introduction  of  Learning  into  England. 
An  undated  manuscript  copy-book  among  the  Warton  papers  in  Trinity 
College  Library  contains  a  preliminary  draft  of  Warton 's  plan  for  his 
history  as  far  as  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  probably  the  first  volume  as 
originally  planned.  Subsequently  he  enlarged  the  plan,  but  without 
altering  its  chronological  character;  so  that  the  inclusion  of  much  more 
material  lengthened  his  work  considerably. 

Plan  of  the  History  of  English  Poetry. 

1.  The  Poetry  subsisting  among  the  Druids  lost:  The  Saxons  introduc'd  it, 
of  whom  Hickes  produces  many  Hymns :  The  old  British  Bards  not  yet  lost : 
Robert  of  Gloster's  Cronicle  the  Remains  of  them. 

2.  Pierce  Plowman  the  first  Allegorical  Poem  in  our  Tongue ;  which  is  half- 
Saxon  as  to  Language ;  next  Gower  &  Chaucer  who  went  abroad  &  brought  back 
with  them  the  Learning  of  France  &  Italy  (which  consisted  chiefly  of  Provencall 
Fictions)  to  enrich  our  tongue ;  so  that  the  old  British  (or  rather  mixt  Saxon) 
made  way  for  foreign  Terms :  But  Poetry  received  a  considerable  Improvement 
from  Lydgate,  who  is  the  first  English  Poet  we  can  read  without  hesitation. 

3.  The  -Allegoric  &  inventive  Vein  seem'd  in  a  little  time  to  be  lost,  &  John 
Harding,  a  Cronicler  in  Rhyme  brought  back,  as  it  were  the  Rudeness  of  Robert 
of  Glocester :  But  that  bad  Taste  did  not  reign  long;  for  S.  Hawes  soon  restor'd 
Invention,  &  improved  our  Versification  to  a  surprising  Degree.  .-Kfter  him  ap- 
pear'd  Alex.  Barclay,  whom  Hawes  is  yet  superior  to,  in  Language  &c. 

4.  But,  now  Henry  8.  being  King,  Learning  appear'd  with  new  Lustre  &  his 
may  be  called  the  first  classical  age  of  this  country.  Notwithstanding  which,  Skel- 
ton  is  nothing  considerable.  Yet  soon  after  this  Poetry  took  a  new  Turn,  in  the 
writings  of  Wyat  &  Surrey ;  who  travelled  into  Italy :  &  these  are  the  very  first 
that  give  us  the  sketch  or  shadow  of  any  polish'd  Verse. 

5.  A  fine  Harvest  of  Poesy  now  shew'd  itself  in  Q.  Elizabeth's  reign. 

In  preferring  a  more  nearly  chronological  arrangement  to  an  arbi- 
trary classification  of  poets,  Warton  believed  that  he  sacrificed  only 
artificial  arrangement  for  'clearness  and  fulness  of  information.'  He 
objected  that  'the  constraint  imposed  by  a  mechanical  attention  to  this 
distribution,  appeared  ...  to  destroy  that  free  exertion  of  research 
with  which  such  a  history  ought  to  be  executed,  and  not  easily  recon- 
cileable  with  that  complication,  variety,  and  extent  of  materials,  which 
it  ought  to  comprehend.'^'  In  fact  his  eagerness  to  acquaint  his  readers 
with  the  little-known  periods  of  early  English  literature  by  means  of 
frequent  citations  and  full  details  was  at  the  same  time  his  strength  and 
his  weakness.  The  value  and  importance  of  his  copious  selections  from 
long-neglected  poems  are  not  immediately  apparent  to  readers  of  the 

^^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry.  Preface,  p.  v.  References  are  to  the  second  edition  of 
vol.  I,  1775- 


84  THOMAS  WARTON  [84 

present  uffo,  to  whom  practically  all  of  English  literature  is  readily 
accessible  in  editions  adapted  to  every  degree  of  scholarship  or  the  lack 
of  it.  It  is  a  eonnnonplace  of  literary  history  that  the  early  eighteenth 
century  was  hopelessly  ignorant  of  even  of  the  most  obvious  facts  in  the 
history  of  poetry,  so  that  the  greatest  poets  were  almost  grotesquely 
represented  upon  a  dismal  background  of  ignorance  and  barbarism, 
wliile  refined  jioetry  was  conceived  as  beginning  with  Mr.  Waller.  By 
his  wealtli  of  lietail  and  by  his  liistorical  method  therefore  Warton  com- 
pleted in  his  history  of  poetry  the  revolution  of  criticism  that  he  had 
begun  in  his  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene;  what  he  had  done  for 
Spenser,  he  enabled  other  critics  to  do  for  other  poets  by  putting  the 
wealth  of  England's  poetical  past  within  their  reach. 

However,  although  Warton  planned  his  liistory  excellently,  his  lit- 
erary antiquariauism,  his  love  for  the  details  of  his  subject,  at  times 
betrayed  him.  The  historian  permitted  himself  to  be  enticed  from  the 
logical  development  of  his  subject  into  all  sorts  of  digressions  and  paren- 
thetical discussions,  sometimes  of  great  length.  These  aberrations,  inter- 
esting as  many  of  them  are  in  themselves,  do  indeed  destroy  the  pro- 
portions of  the  work  and  obscure  the  outlines  of  what  was  really  a  well- 
plaiuied  history.  Classical  scholar  though  he  was,  Warton  lacked  the 
Greek  sense  of  proportion  and  form,  and  his  great  work  has  far  less  of 
the  simplicity  of  the  classics  than  of  the  rich  bewilderment  of  his  favour- 
ite romances.  In  nothing  is  his  'romanticism'  more  evident  than  in  his 
nistory  of  English  Poetry.  He  is  like  a  traveller  exploring  a  new  and 
delightful  country,  bewildered  by  enchanting  by-ways  diverging  in  all 
directions,  so  that  however  constant  the  pointing  of  his  compass,  his 
progress  is  delayed  by  innumerable  excursions.  Although  his  explora- 
tion is  neither  quite  thorough  nor  quite  complete,  his  guide  book  is  both 
fascinating  in  itself  and  invaluable  in  pointing  out  the  way  for  future 
travellers  through  the  same  land. 

Warton  was  unable  to  begin  his  history  at  an  earlier  point  than 
Pope  or  Gray  had  proposed,  a  faidt  of  which  he  was  conscious.  His 
excuse  was  his  ignorance  of  Anglo-Saxon, — of  which  all  b>it  a  very  few 
antiquarians  of  liis  day  were  also  ignorant — so  that  even  the  slightest 
stuily  of  the  subject  would  have  almost  doubled  a  labour  that  was  at 
best  little  short  of  Herculean.  To  atone  in  some  degree  for  the  omission 
of  the  earlier  periods,  and  to  clear  the  way  for  the  liistory  proper, 
Warton  thought  it  necessary  to  preface  his  first  volume  with  two  disser- 
tations in  which  he  considered  in  some  detail  materials  which,  while 
important  for  the  development  of  his  subject,  would  have  marred  the 
unity  of  Ins  design.  The  second  of  these  dissertations,  On  thr  Introduc- 
tion of  Learning  into  England,  is  crammed  witli  valuable  facts  concern- 
ing the  period  before  the  history  itself  begins;  facts  which,  presented  as 


85]  mSTORT   OF   ENGLISH    POETEY,   VOL.    I  85 

Warton  presented  them,  were  more  interesting  to  the  antiquarian  than 
to  the  man  of  taste,  but  which  had  at  kast  the  charm  of  novelty.  And 
the  author's  satisfaction  tliat  the  barrenness  of  scholastic  learning 
yielded  place  to  the  'beautiful  extravagancies  of  romantic""  fabling'  is 
an  interesting  expression  of  his  sound  belief  that  imagination  is  a  more 
important  factor  than  reason  in  the  production  of  great  poetry. 

In  the  first  ilissertation,  On  the  Origin  of  Ronwntic  Fiction  in 
Europe,  Warton  was  dealing  with  a  subject  which  had  always  fascinated 
him,  and  to  which  he  first  gave  the  importance  it  deserved  in  the  history 
of  English  literature.  His  theory  of  the  origin  of  romance  in  I'']urope, 
however,  is  marred  by  the  absurd  and  fanciful  etlinologies  advanced 
by  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  century  scholars  upon  which  it  was 
necessarily  based.  Without  the  solid  foundation  supplied  by  the  re- 
cently developed  sciences  of  comparative  philology  and  anthropology, 
earlier  scholars  had  recourse  to  vague  tlieories  based  upon  sujx'rfieial 
resemblances  that  now  seem  unworthy  of  serious  attention.  Tlusc  prev- 
alent misconceptions  Warton  naturally  accepted,  so  that  much  of  his 
theory  of  romance  is  now  antiquated,  though,  as  usual,  many  details  are 
singidarly  correct  and  illuminating. 

Warton 's  manner  of  arriving  at  his  tlieorj-  that  the  ir.aterial  of 
romantic  fiction  was  largely  of  ultimately  oi-iental  origin  is  far  more 
questionable  than  the  conclusion  itself,  and  his  happy  discovery  of  at 
least  a  half-truth  when  reasoned  certainty  was — and  perhaps  still  is — 
impossible,  is  remarkably  like  genius.  His  perfectly  clear  recognition 
of  the  importance  of  oral  poetry  as  a  source  of  written  poetry,-^  his 
happily  conjectured  theory  of  the  gradual  building  up  of  long  romances 
by  the  artistic  combination  of  previously  existing  sliorter  narratives,-* 
his  acceptance  of  Bretagne  as  an  ancient  centre  of  romantic  story  where 
Celtic  influence  combined  with  British,  Scandinavian,  and  Frencli,-''  and 
his  conclusion  that  various  as  were  their  sources,  the  earliest  metrical 
romances  were  written  in  I'^rench,-*  are  theories  whicli,  thougli  still  in 
dispute,  a  modern  scholar  need  not  fear  to  avow,  and  even  one  of  which 
he  would  be  proud  to  father.  They  show  also  an  ability  to  deal  with 
comparative  literature  and  an  intimate  knowledge  of  middle  English 
literature  far  in  advance  of  his  age,  and  illustrate  his  positive  genius  for 

^oWarton  used  the  term  romantic  here  as  a  derivative  of  romance,  that  kind 
of  fictitious  tale  characteristic  of  mediaeval  literature.  In  this  sense  he  said  it 
was  'entirely  unknown  to  the  writers  of  Greece  and  Rome.' 

-^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  Diss.  I,  pp.  (i),  (31-2).  The  pages  in  the  dissertations  are 
not  numbered  in  the  first  editions ;  this  numbering  is,  therefore,  my  own. 

--Ibid.  p.  (9),  and  vol.  I,  p.  38. 

-^Ibid.  Diss.  I,  pp.  (3-9),  (48). 

"*Ibid.  vol.  I,  p.  145. 


86  THOMAS  WARTON  [86 

pointing  out  ways  by  wliich  subsequent  scholars  were  to  obtain  valuable 
results. 

As  ill  his  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queen,  Warton's  study  of 
romances  involved  also  the  social  and  religious  life  of  an  age  which  was 
as  riclily  inuiffinative  in  its  romantic  chivalry  and  its  deep-seated  faith 
in  the  miraculous  as  iu  its  literature.  Not  the  least  valuable  part  of  the 
discussion  of  the  earlier  periods  was  the  copious  extracts  from  the  old 
romances. — Richard  Cwur  de  Leon,  Sir  Guy,  the  Squire  of  Low  Degree, 
and  others  tliat  hail  long  lain  neglected  in  dusty  old  manuscript  collec- 
tions. Unseholarly  as  the  texts  of  those  excerpts  are,  they  stimulated 
interest  in  tlie  originals  and  were  no  doubt  partly  responsible  for  the 
series  of  modernizations  and  editions  of  romances  which  followed.-'  His 
study  of  tlie  romances  and  other  early  poetry-"  indicates  his  attempt  to 
taite  into  account  the  elusive  but  none  the  less  potent  influences  upon 
Englisli  poetry  even  before  the  time  of  Chaucer  and  the  generally  recog- 
nized poets,  and  distinguishes  him  from  an  age  of  critics  who,  whatever 
thej'  may  have  thought  of  the  poetic  genius  of  the  first  English  poets, 
denied  them  their  due  place  in  the  development  of  English  poetry  and 
entirely  disregarded  any  influences  upon  them.-'  Warton  differs  from 
every  other  critic  of  his  age  in  constantlj'  regarding  literature  as  a 
whole,  as  a  continual  stream  of  progress — with  eddies  and  whirlpools 
and  backwaters — but  also  with  a  steady  and  deep  current,  and  with 
numberless  tributaries. 

Although  Warton  properly  excluded  dramatic  poetry  from  his  de- 
sign, he  was  luiable  to  resist  the  temptation  to  discuss  its  origin  and 
early  development,  and  his  two  long  digressions-*  constitute  the  first 
valuable  study  of  that  subject  and  complete  his  interpretation  of  me- 
dia?val  life.  On  the  basis  of  his  reading  of  French  memoirs  on  the 
subject,-'  and  his  first  hand  acquaintance  with  the  'originals'  in  'books 

^'Tlic  early  editors  of  romances,  Ritson,  Ellis,  and  Weber,  constantly  refer  to 
Warton's  History. 

'-'"Warton  has  e.\tracts  from  many  favourite  medixval  lyrics,  Alison,  Lenten 
is  come  with  love  to  town,  Sumer  is  icumen,  etc.,  as  well  as  from  many  such  longer 
poems  as  Hule  and  Nightengale,  Manuel  de  Peche,  and  Land  of  Cokayue. 

=''1  cannot  ....  help  observing,  that  English  literature  and  English  poetry 
sufTcr,  while  so  many  pieces  of  this  kind  still  remain  concealed  and  forgotten  in  our 
manuscript  libraries.  They  contain  in  common  with  the  prose  romances  .... 
amusing  instances  of  antient  customs  and  institutions  .  .  .  and  they  preserve  pure 
and  unmixed,  those  fables  of  chivalry  which  formed  the  taste  and  awakened  the 
imagination  of  our  elder  English  classics.'     I,  pp.  208-9. 

-»Ibid.    I.  pp.  233-251;  II,  366-406;  III,  321-328. 

=»Du  Tilliofs  Memoirs  four  servir  a  I'histoire  de  la  Fete  de  Faux,  1741,  and 
Voltaire's  Essais  siir  /iV  Moeiirs  et  I'Esprit  des  Nations,  1756,  and  otiiers;  see 
bibliography  of  sources. 


87]  HISTORY   OP   ENGUSH  POEimY,   VOL.   I  87 

and  manuscripts  not  easily  found  nor  often  examined,'^"  he  discussed 
the  religious,  secular  and  scholastic  beginnings  of  the  drama  in  a  way 
that  was  not  only  valuable  for  its  originality  at  the  time  it  appeared, 
but  authoritative  as  late  as  the  second  quarter  of  the  next  century  when 
Collier  quoted  it  as  the  most  valuable  source  of  information  on  the 
subject.^' 

Chaucer  is  of  course  the  chief  figure  in  the  first  volume  of  the 
historj^  and  it  is  by  the  adequacy  and  soundness  of  the  criticism  of  his 
work  that  Warton's  ability  is  best  tested.  Professor  Lounsbury"s  esti- 
mate of  its  value  is  juster  than  his  explanation  of  its  faults.  The  'work 
...  is  one',  he  says,  'which  it  will  perhaps  be  always  necessary  to  con- 
sult for  its  facts,  its  references,  and  its  inferences ;  and  though  in  many 
points  it  needs  to  be  corrected,  a  long  time  will  certainly  elapse  before 
it  will  be  superseded.  .  .  .  But  while  the  substantial  merits  of  the 
chapters  on  Chaucer  need  not  be  denied,  they  are  very  far  from  being 
perfectly  satisfactory.'  Its  defects  are  however  due  rather  to  Warton's 
inevitably  imperfect  knowledge  of  middle  English  and  of  Chaucer's 
sources — though  his  knowledge  at  this  point  was  approached  by  none 
of  his  generation  save  Tyrwhitt — than,  as  Professor  Lounsbury  sup- 
poses, to  his  desire  'to  parade  his  own  knowledge'  rather  than  to  throw 
light  upon  his  author,  or  to  an  apologetic  air  that  gives  the  'impression 
that  he  admired  Chaucer  greatly,  and  was  ashamed  of  himself  for  having 
been  caught  in  the  act.^-'  In  this  Professor  Lounsbury  seems  to  have 
fallen  somewhat  into  the  common  habit  of  condemning  eighteenth  century 
critics  en  masse  without  making  sufficient  distinctions  among  them. 
Warton's  learning  is  never  ostentatious  although  he  is  often  unwise  in 
not  making  a  more  rigid  selection  of  material ;  and  he  conspicuously 
lacks  the  apologetic  attitude  adopted  by  some  of  his  contemporaries. 
Nothing  is  more  certain  than  tliat  he  had  more  than  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury antiquary's  boundless  curiosity — although  he  had  that  too;  he  was 
animated  by  genuine  love  of  learning  and  real  interest  in  making  acces- 
sible to  others  the  dark  places  in  literary  and  social  history,  and,  since 
he  would  entirely  fail  of  his  purpose  if  he  antagonized  his  public,  he 
used  every  means  to  arouse  in  them  the  same  enthusiasm  that  he  himself 

^"Hist.  Eng.  Poetry.     I.  p.  250. 

''Collier's  History  of  English  Dramatic  Poetry  to  the  time  of  Shakespeare, 
1831.  Preface.  IMalone's  essay,  an  Historical  Account  of  the  .  .  English  Stage, 
prefi.xed  to  his  edition  of  Shakespeare  in  1790  quotes  Warton's  history  freely  and 
was  probably  further  indebted  to  Warton's  later  private  study.  See  Warton's  let- 
ters to  Malone,  printed  in  full  with  notes,  in  The  Journal  of  English  and  Germanic 
Philology,  vol.  XIV,  no.  I,  pp.  107-118. 

^^Studies  in  Chaucer,  3  vols.     1892.     Ill,  pp.  246-7. 


88 


THOMAS  WARTON 


[88 


felt  for  those  splendid  periods  of  English  poetry  before  tlieir  own  ele- 
gant iiikI  polished  age. 

The  historical  method  which  had  been  Warton's  great  contribution 
to  criticism  in  his  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queen  he  applied  more 
extensively  in  the  History  of  Poetry.  The  first  step  in  the  study  of 
Chauei-r  was  an  attempt  to  represent  his  social  and  literary  environ- 
ment anil  antecedents  in  order  tliat  lie  miglit  be  riphtly  understood.  The 
eigliteentii  century  gentleman  of  taste  despised  Chaucer  because,  by  an 
anachronism  that  passed  over  four  centuries  of  literary  activity  and 
progress  as  if  they  were  nothing,  they  insisted  upon  judging  him  by  the 
same  standards  which  they  applied  to  Pope  and  Waller.  Warton,  first 
realizing  the  fallacy  of  this  method,  studied  the  wide  diversity  in  man- 
ners, customs,  and  literary  ideals  of  the  two  periods  and  made  the  neces- 
sary allowance  for  the  difference.  It  seemed  to  him  worth  while  to 
consider  Chaucer  as  the  brilliant  student,  the  popular  and  favoured 
courtier  and  diplomat,  the  extensive  traveller,  and  the  polished  man  of 
the  world  as  well  as  the  'first  English  versifier  who  wrote  poetically,'^'* 
since  his  familiarity  with  splendid  processions  and  gallant  carousals, 
with  the  practices  and  diversions  of  polite  life,  his  connections  with  the 
great  at  home  and  his  personal  acquaintance  with  the  vernacular  poetry 
of  foreign  countries,  helped  to  mould  his  poetry  quite  as  much  as  his 
knowledge  of  the  classical  writers,  and  enabled  him  to  give  in  the 
Canterbury  Tales  'such  an  accurate  picture  of  antient  manners,  as  no 
cotemporary  has  transmitted  to  posterity."'* 

Warton 's  study  of .  Chaucer 's  literary  antecedents  shows  a  more 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  comparative  field  of  literature  during  the 
Middle  Ages  than  he  is  sometimes  credited  with.'''^  His  discussion  of 
Provencal  literature,  based  largely  \ipon  the  study  of  the  French  and 
Italian  antiqiiaries  and  historians,""  and  of  its  influence  upon  English 
poetry,  especially  vipon  Chaucer,  is  much  abler  and  fuller  than  any 
previous  discussions  of  the  subject"'  and  may  still  be  read  with  profit. 
He  treats  briefly  but  suggestively  such  important  points  for  the  study 
of  Cliaucer  as  the  moral  and  allegorical  tendency  of  Provencal  poetry, 
its  relation  to  classical  poetry  on  the  side  of  allegory,''*  its  mystical  and 
conventional  conception  of  love,  and  the  nice  distinction  between  the 
metaphysical  delicacy  of  the  Provencal  ideal  of  love  represented  in 

^■■'Johnson :     Dictionary,  Pref.  p.  i.,  and  Hist.  Eiig.  Poetry.  I.  p.  341  ff. 
^*Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  I,  p.  435. 

^'^e.g.  Saintsbiiry:     The  Flourishing  of  Romance,  New  York,  1907.    p.  139. 
'"See  bibliography  of  sources. 

•■"Rymer:     A  Short  View  of  Tragedy,  1693,  pp.  67-83.     Pope  and  Gray,  plans 
for  a  history  of  poetry. 

^"Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  I,  p.  457. 


i 


i 


89]  HISTORY   OP  ENGLISH   POETRY,  VOL.   I  89 

Guillaume  de  Lorris  and  the  conventional  formality  of  the  later  method 
of  reducing  the  passion  of  love  to  a  system,  based  upon  Ovid's  Art  of 
Love.^^ 

"Wart on  also  made  a  detailed  study  of  Chaucer's  relations  to  his 
sources  that  anticipated  modern  investigation  of  the  subject.  His  dis- 
covery of  Le  Teseide  as  the  source  of  the  Knight's  Tale  was  an  impor- 
tant contribution  that  probably  owed  nothing  to  Thynne's  similar 
assertion.'"'  Botli  Dryden  and  Urry  had  recognized  Chaucer's  general 
indebtedness  to  Boccaccio  on  his  own  statements,  but  the  nature  and 
extent  of  the  indebtedness  had  not  been  discussed  before.*'  In  his  study 
of  Chaucer's  sources  Warton  was,  however,  even  more  concerned  to  show 
his  originality  than  his  mere  borrowings,  his  heighteuings  of  the  original 
fictions,  tlie  additions  and  contractions  wliicli  help  to  make  his  poems 
'strike  us  with  an  air  of  originality,'*-  a  charin  further  increased  b.y  his 
'considerable  talents  for  the  artificial  construction  of  a  story '*^  and  his 
'nervous'  and  'flowing  numbers'.  His  enthusiasm  was  keenest  for  his 
most  original  work,  the  Canterbury  Tales,  'specimens  of  Chaucer's  nar- 
rative genius,  unassisted  and  unalloyed,'  in  which  'the  figures  are  all 
British,  and  bear  no  suspicious  signatures  of  classical,  Italian,  or  French 
imitation.'**     And  he  justified  his  method  by  showing  that  this  great 

^^Jbid.  I,  p.  383. 

^^Francis  Thynne's  Animadversions,  etc.,  1598  (Chaucer  Society,  1876,  p.  43). 
Warton  would  certainly  have  referred  to  this  had  he  known  of  it.  A  note  to 
Tyrwhitt's  Essay  on  the  Language  and  Versification  of  Chaucer,  'It  is  so  little  a 
while  since  the  world  has  been  informed  that  the  Palamon  and  Arcite  of  Chaucer 
was  taken  form  the  Theseida  of  Boccace,'  seems  to  point  to  Warton  as  the  author 
of  the  discovery. 

Joseph  Warton,  in  his  Essay  on  the  Genius  and  il'ritings  of  Pope  expressed 
surprise  that  Chaucer's  borrowing  from  Boccaccio  should  have  been  so  long 
unobserved,  since  Xiceron,  in  his  Memoirs,  published  in  1736 — a  book  which  he 
says  was  well-known,  had  given  an  abstract  of  the  story  of  Palamon  and  Arcite. 
He  added.  'G.  Chaucer,  I'Homere  de  son  pays,  a  mis  I'ouvrage  de  Boccace  en  vers 
Anglois.'  (I.  p.  335,  ed.  1806.)  Neither  Thomas  Warton  nor  Tyrwhitt  mentions 
this  work  however.  This  passage  in  J.  Warton's  essay  was  first  inserted  in  an 
appendi.x  to  the  third  edition  (1772-1782)  and  in  the  body  of  the  fourth  edition  in 
1782.  The  recent  discovery  of  the  source  of  Palamon  and  Arcite  to  which  he 
refers  was  therefore  certainly  his  brother's.  (Mr.  David  H.  Bishop,  of  Columbia 
University,  has  looked  up  this  passage  for  me  in  the  various  editions  of  J.  War- 
ton's  essay.) 

*'The  authority  and  adequacy  of  Warton's  discussion  are  shown  by  the  fact  that 
Skeat  refers  his  readers  to  this  section  of  Warton's  history  'for  further  remarks 
on  this  Tale.'    Ed.  Chaucer,  1894,  III,  394. 

*-Ibid.  I,  p.  357- 

*^Hist.  Eng.  Poetr\,  III,  p.  367. 

**Ihid.  I,  p.  435. 


90  THOMAS  WARTOK  [90 

«cl»j<>voniont  w«s  the  rcsiilt  of  Chaucer's  'knowledge  of  the  world'  and 
'ohs«>rvatiou  on  life"  eombined  with  his  literary  artistrj-  and  his  grenius. 

Althongh  AVarton  st't  out  to  Iv  the  historian  rather  tlian  the  critic 
of  Enplish  i>ootry.  his  history  is  shot  through  with  flashes  of  his  enthu- 
siasm for  natural  and  imaginative  ratJier  than  conventional  and  reasoned 
beauties.  He  adminnl  the  Knight's  Talc  not  for  thost^  partial  conformi- 
ties to  the  rules  for  epic  pix^try  that  commended  it  to  Drydeu  and  Urry. 
but  in  spite  of  its  violation  of  the  rules  and  because  of  its  direct  appeal 
to  the  imagination  and  feelings.  'It  alwunds',  he  says,  'in  those  inci- 
dents which  are  calculated  to  strike  the  fancy  by  opening  resources  to 
sublime  description,  or  inten^st  the  heart  by  pathetic  situations.  On 
this  account,  even  without  considering  the  poetical  and  exterior  orna- 
ments of  the  piece,  we  an^  hardly  disg\isted  with  tlie  mixture  of  manners, 
the  imnfusion  of  times,  and  the  like  violations  of  propriety-,  which  this 
IHvm.  in  common  with  jxll  others  of  its  age.  presents  in  almost  every 
pagyv*"  His  study  of  the  House  of  Fame  shows  a  similar  appreciation 
of  the  essential  Wauties  of  romantic  poetry:  he  praised  it  for  its  'great 
strvikes  of  Gothic  imagination,  yet  bordering  often  on  the  most  ideal 
and  capricious  extravagance.'"'  and  condemned  Pope's  mistaken  attempt 
to  'correct  it's  extravagancies,  by  new  retiuements  and  additions  of 
another  cast.'  in  the  famous  comparison:  "An  attempt  to  unite  order 
and  exactness  of  imagery  witli  a  subject  formed  on  principles  so  pro- 
fessedly rom.antic  and  anomalous,  is  like  giving  Corinthian  pillars  to  a 
Gothic  palace.  When  I  read  Pope's  elegant  imitation  of  this  piece.  I 
think  1  am  walking  among  the  modern  raon\iments  unsxiitably  placed 
in  Westminster  Abbey.'** 

Warton's  real  taste  for  imaginative  poetry  as  represented  in  the 
romamvs  and  Chaucer's  poetry,  made  him  dwell  lovingly  and  long  on 
that  ivriod.  on  Chaucer  as  at  once  the  flower  of  romance  and  the  renais- 
sance and  as  an  independent  and  original  genius  superior  to  his  age, 
and  lament  the  inevitability  of  tlie  decay  of  imaginative  pot^try  after 
his  death.  Although  he  had  intended  to  complete  the  history  of  seven 
centuries  of  English  poetry  in  two  volumes,  he  devoted,  perhaps  not 
altogether  unwisely,  the  whole  first  vohime  to  the  least  known  and  least 
proline  perioii  and  txirned  with  reluctance  from  that  period  to  one  in 
which  the  decay  of  romance  was  followed  by  a  revival  of  learning.  He 
recognized  that  the  new  age  would  have  its  compensations:  'As  know- 
ledge and  learning  encrease.  poetry  begins  to  deal  less  in  imagination: 

"/Sd.  I.  p.  367. 
**!l^.  I,  p.  589. 
*'!SJ  I  o   J06. 


91 


91]  HISTOBT   OF   EXGLISH   POETBT,   VOL.    I 

and  these  fantastic  beings  give  way  to  real  manners  and  living  charac- 
ters;' vet  he  kne-w  too  that  a  revival  of  imagination  must  precede 
another  great  poetic  age. 


CHAPTER  VI 


The  History  of  English  Poetry.    Volume  II,  1778 
The  Reviv^vl  op  Learning 

At  tlie  time  the  first  volume  of  the  History  of  Poetry  was  published, 
Wartou  had  in  hand  much  of  the  material  for  the  second,  and  expected 
it  to  follow  very  soon.  In  September  following  the  appearance  of  the 
first  volume  he  wrote  to  his  friend  Price,  'I  have  the  pleasure  to  tell  you 
that  great  part  of  the  second  volume  of  my  History  is  ready  for  press'.' 
The  work,  however,  did  not  go  on  so  well  as  was  expected,  and  the 
second  volume  was  delayed  for  four  years.  It  was  just  at  this  time  that 
Lord  North,  who  had  been  a  contemporary  of  "Warton  at  Trinity,  sent 
his  son  up  to  Oxford  to  be  under  Warton 's  special  charge  from  1774 
to  1777,  during  which  time  he  relinquished  his  other  pupils.^  The 
preparation  of  a  collected  edition  of  his  poems,  which  appeared  in  1777, 
must  also  have  hindered  the  history  somewhat. 

Probably  the  principal  reason  for  the  delay  of  the  second  volume 
however  was  the  necessity  the  author  felt  of  including  in  it  a  discussion 
of  the  Rowley-Chatterton  poems  which  were  then  almost  universally 
believed  to  be  genuine  fifteenth  century  poems.  Warton  had  called 
them  spurious  when  they  were  submitted  to  him  by  the  Chancellor  of 
Oxford,  the  Earl  of  Lichfield,  in  1772,  but  they  were  so  generally 
accepted  as  genuine,  even  \>y  Tyrwhitt,  who  later  helped  to  expose  the 
forgery,  that  he  reluctantly  admitted  them  to  a  place  in  his  history, 
at  the  same  time  denying  their  authenticity.  Warton 's  first  step  in  this 
matter  had  been  to  send  to  William  Barrett,  the  Bristol  antiquary- 
surgeon,  for  conclusive  evidence.  Altliough  Barrett  furnished  him  with 
plenty  of  information,^  he  was  a  complete  victim  of  Chatterton's  hoax, 
and  Warton  was  naturally  dissatisfied  with  his  verdict.  He  then  ap- 
pealed to  Percy  for  a  less  biased  opinion,  in  the  following  letter : — 

Dear  Sir 

I  should  esteem  it  a  particular  favour  if  you  could  conveniently  communicate  to 
me  what  you  know  about  Rowlie's  poems  at  Bristol.    I  have  a  correspondence  with 

'Winton.  Sept.  30,  1774.    Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  Ixxiv. 
-Ibid.,  pp.  Ixxiv-lxxv. 

HIist.  Eiig.  Poetry.  II,  p.  142,  note.    References  to  the  second  and  third  volumes 
are  to  the  first  edition. 

92 


93]  HISTORY   OF    ENGLISH    POETRY,   VOL.    II  93 

Mr.  Barret  of  that  place,  but  he  rather  embarrasses  than  clears  the  subject.  He 
has  sent  me  a  fragment  of  Parchment ;  on  it  a  piece  of  a  poem  on  a  Mayor's  feast, 
the  ink  &  the  Parchment  seemingly  antient.  It  is  necessary  that  I  should  consider 
him  whether  spurious  or  not,  as  there  has  been  so  much  noise  about  the  Discovery, 
&  as  so  many  are  convinced  of  the  poems  being  genuine.  If  possible,  I  request  the 
favour  of  your  answer  immediately ;  &  am,  Dear  Sir, 

Your  very  affectionate 

friend  &  servt 
Jul.  29,  1774  T.  Warton. 

Winchester 
P.  S.     Please  to  direct  at  Winton.* 

Percy's  reply  is  not  to  be  found,  but  cannot  have  been  convincing,  for 
a  year  and  a  half  later  Warton  was  still  trying  vainly  to  bring  himself 
to  the  popular  opinion,  and  hurried  by  the  demands  of  his  printer. 

Dear  Sir 

I  have  received  the  favour  of  yours,  which  is  quite  satisfactory. 

As  to  Chatterton,  I  have  considered  that  subject  pro  and  con,  not  professing 
to  enter  ininiitely  into  the  controversy,  but  just  as  much  as  the  general  nature  of 
my  work  properly  required.  I  own  I  lean  to  the  side-of  the  forgery:  but  if  you 
could  send  me  only  one  capital  argument  in  favor  of  the  genuineness  of  Rowlie's 
poems,  I  should  accept  it  most  thankfully.  I  would  willingly  come  to  town  on 
purpose,  but  it  is  impossible :  and  at  the  same  time  I  am  ashamed  to  interrupt  your 
Engagements.  The  Press  is  drawing  near  to  this  period.  I  will  send  you  speedily 
the  E.xtract  you  mention  from  the  Selden  Manuscript :  and  am.  Dear  Sir,  your 
most  affectionate 

humble  servt. 

T.  Warton 
Trin.  Coll. — 

Jan  23  1776 
To 

Reverend  Dr.  Percy 

at  Northumberland-house 
London' 

Another  letter  to  Percy  written  a  month  later  shows  the  volume 
going  on  through  the  press  and  Warton  busy  with  the  rest  of  the  volume. 

Dear  Sir 

Since  I  wrote  last,  the  sheet  in  which  is  a  Note*  about  James  the  first,  is  gone 
to  Press.  I  send  a  proof  of  the  Note,  which  perhaps  will  give  you  as  much 
Information  as  you  want  on  the  Subject.  Otherwise,  I  will  make  a  further  search, 
&  gett  the  poem  transcribed  if  necessary.     I  throw  in,  Currente  Prcelo,  the  notice 

<Brit.  Mus.  Add.  MSS.  32329  f.  76. 

'^Same,  f.  83. 

^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  125-6. 


94  THOMAS  WARTON  [94 

at  the  end  about  a  song  being  in  your  possession.    My  work,  (I  mean  the  Second 
Volume,)  which  is  much  indebted  to  you,  goes  on  very  briskly. 

I  am,  Dear  Sir, 

Your  most  affectionate 
humble  servant 

T.  Warton. 

Trin  Coll.  Oxon. 

Feb.  22,  1776.' 

The  progress  of  the  second  volume  though  steady  was  slow.  In 
November,  1776,  "Warton  was  hopeful  that  it  would  soon  appear,'  but 
he  spent  the  following  summer  at  Winchester  liard  at  work  upon  it, 
and  in  September  Avrote  to  Price,  'My  second  volume  goes  on  swim- 
mingly. I  have  already  written  almost  the  whole ;  but  I  intend  a  third 
volume,  of  which  more  when  we  meet.'"  The  next  year  the  second  vol- 
ume was  publislied. 

Warton  had  closed  his  first  volume  with  a  note  of  regret  that  the 
flowering  of  romance  was  inevitably  followed  by  a  period  of  greater 
learning  but  of  poetic  decadence ;  the  second  volume  was  taken  up  with 
the  struggle  between  learning  and  imagination  which  was  to  result  in 
their  fusion  in  the  great  poetic  age.  For  this  period  Warton  had  less 
genuine  enthusiasm  and  interest  than  for  the  more  imaginative  and 
productive  periods,  and  this  volume  is  therefore  less  satisfactory;  it  is 
a  more  miscellaneous  mass  of  minute  discussions  of  details  and  of  gen- 
eral views  of  important  large  subjects  into  which  at  times  flash  the 
genius  and  enthusiasm  of  the  critic.  In  his  first  volume  he  had  shown 
how  Chaucer  was  influenced  by  his  age;  in  the  second  he  showed  how 
certain  of  the  influences  upon  him  becoming  dominant  had  suppressed 
pootry,  how  Chaucer's  genius  could  combine  romance  and  learning  while 
his  contemporaries  with  less  genius  and  more  ambition  to  be  thought 
scholars'"  sacrificed  romance  to  learning,  imagination  to  reason  and  were 
the  worse  poets.  'On  this  account,'  he  said,  'the  minstrels  of  these 
times,  who  were  totally  uneducated,  and  poured  forth  spontaneous 
rhymes  in  obedience  to  the  workings  of  nature,  often  exhibit  more  genu- 
ine strokes  of  passion  and  imagination,  than  the  professed  poets.'" 
Warton 's  revolt  against  the  classical  age  is  nowhere  more  apparent  than 
in  the  stand  he  took  for  imagination  and  spontaneity  as  the  essential 
qualities  of  poetry,  and  against  reason  and  artificiality  as  its  corrupters. 
In  his  discussion  of  the  poetic  decadence  of  the  fifteenth  century  he 

'Same,  {.  85. 

'Letter  to  Gough,  Nov.  li,  1776.    Lit.  Anec.  VI,  p.  178. 

"Mant,  Op.  cit.  Ixxv. 

^"Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  31. 


95]  HISTORY    OP    ENGLISH    POETRY,    VOL.    II  95 

was,  of  course,  crying  out  against  the  over-empliasis  of  reason  in  his 
own  age,  and  looking  forward  to  a  similar  revival  of  imagination  and 
poetry. 

Warton"s  liigh  valuation  of  imagination  anil  originality  did  not, 
however,  blind  him  to  lesser  merits.  It  is  a  credit  to  his  historical  sense 
that  with  only  a  general  survey  of  the  political,  social,  and  literary  con- 
ditions of  the  period  and  with  no  accurate  knowledge  of  philology,'^  he 
was  able  to  recognize  the  importance  of  tlie  transition  period  for  the 
development  and  enrichment  of  the  language,  and  to  point  out  that 
Chaucer,  Gower,  and  Occleve  had  not,  as  was  generally  thought,'-  'cor- 
rupted the  purity  of  the  English  language,  by  affecting  to  introduce  so 
many  foreign  words  and  phrases,'"  but  that  they  had  used  the  language 
of  their  age,  a  language  that  was  then  undergoing  important  changes 
particularly  under  French  influence,  and  that  was  gaining  in  'copious- 
ness, elegance,  and  harmony'  by  these  innovations.^'' 

His  appreciation  of  Chaucer's  contemporaries  too  was  remarkably 
just ;  in  discussing  them  he  fell  neither  into  the  error  of  absurdly  exag- 
gerating their  merits,  nor,  by  too  close  comparison  with  Chaucer,  of 
equally  absurdly  underrating  their  importance.  He  found  in  Gower 
an  almost  perfect  example  of  a  poet  whose  erudition  overtopped  his 
invention,  who  was  'serious  and  didactic  on  all  occasions'  and  possessed 
'the  tone  of  the  scholar  and  the  moralist  on  the  most  lively  topics;'" 
who  'supplied  from  his  common-place  book'  what  he  'wanted  in  inven- 
tion."* Yet  he  realized  that  Gower  was  not  only  important  for  the 
historical  study  of  the  progress  of  English  poetr.y  during  the  fifteenth 
century  but  of  such  intrinsic  value  that  'if  Chaucer  had  not  existed,' 
his  poetry  'would  alone  have  been  sufficient  to  rescue  the  reigns  of 
Edward  the  third  and  Richard  the  second  from  the  imputation  of  bar- 
barism.'^^  Warton's  analysis  of  the  influence  of  the  mediaeval  story- 
books, those  'commodious  abridgements'  of  all  sacred  and  profane  stories 
in  which  both  classical  and  mediaeval  stories  were  adapted  to  the  taste 
of  the  times,  upon  which  Gower 's  Confessio  Amantis  was  modelled,  and 
from  which  it  drew  quite  as  much  as  from  Jean  de  Meun's  part  of  the 

^^Even  such  as  Tyrwhitt  possessed.  Ed.  Chaucer,  Essay  on  the  Language  and 
Versification  of  Chaucer. 

'-Both  Dr.  Johnson  and  Tyrwhitt  likewise  remonstrated  against  this  belief  .  . 
The  History  of  the  English  Language,  prefaced  to  Johnson's  Dictionary,  1755,  and 
Tyrwhitt's  Essay. 

^^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry.    II,  p.  50. 

"/61V. 

^"Ibid.  II,  p.  2. 

i»/6irf.  II,  p.  4. 

"/6irf.  II,  p.  I. 


96  THOMAS  WARTON  [96 

Roman  de  la  Rose,  shows  an  extensive  knowledge  of  the  literary  tradi- 
tions of  the  period  and  of  their  development  in  the  next  age  into  an 
eager  interest  in  the  original  anthors  from  which  the  compilations  had 
been  made."  In  addition  to  tliis  just  criticism,  he  made  an  original 
contribution  to  the  study  of  Gower  by  tlie  discovery  of  tlie  Cinquantes 
Balades  and  the  publication  of  four  of  them  with  appropriate  recogni- 
tion of  their  merit  and  discussion  of  their  relation  to  French  and  Eng- 
lish love  poems." 

Lydgate's  treatment  of  romantic  material  concerned  the  historian 
quite  as  much  as  the  versatility  and  ease  of  versification  which  he  was 
inclined  to  think  placed  him  next  to  Chaucer  in  those  respects  at  least. 
He  did  not,  however,  neglect  his  poetry,  though  he  did  not  attempt,  as 
Riteon  did,  to  enumerate  the  long  list  of  poems  attributed  to  him.-"  He 
evidently  desired  to  do  justice  to  him  as  a  poet  who  'moved  with  equal 
ease  in  every  mode  of  composition,'  who  was  clear  and  fluent  in  phrase 
but  often  'tedious  and  languid.'-'  With  true  poetic  taste  he  man- 
aged to  cull  from  the  Lyfc  of  our  Lady  a  number  of  the  best  lines,  which 
probably  improved  the  poet's  reputation. -- 

It  has  been  said  that  Warton  considered  it  necessary  to  discuss  the 
Rowley  poems  in  that  period  of  the  history  to  which  their  pretended 
author  belonged.  While  we  cannot  altogether  approve  his  judgment  in  so 
doing,  his  defense,  that,  since  they  were  generally  accredited,-'  though 

"/fc.U  II,  11,  ff. 

•'Emendations  to  volume  II.  Warton  found  these  French  poems  in  a  manu- 
script lent  him  by  Lord  Trentham. 

^''Warton  was  well  aware  of  their  great  number ;  'To  enumerate  Lydgate's 
pieces,  would  be  to  write  the  catalogue  of  a  little  library.'  He  realized  that  to 
catalogue  them  was  then  less  worth  while  than  to  present  a  just  estimate  of  the 
poet  and  his  best  work.  Ritson's  list,  in  his  Bibliographia  Poetica,  was  a  valuable 
achievement  for  its  time.    Ed.  1802,  pp.  66-87. 

^^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  pp.  52,  58. 

'=Gray's  praise  of  Lydgate  was  somewhat  extravagant;  he  quoted  some  lines 
which  he  declared  entitled  him  to  a  place  among  the  greatest  poets,  but  mentioned 
the  Life  of  our  Lady  only  in  a  note,  making  no  quotation  from  it.  His  Remarks 
on  the  Poems  of  Lydgate  are  among  the  few  manuscript  notes  which  he  had  made 
for  his  history  of  poetry,  published  from  his  commonplace  book  in  1814  by  T.  J. 
Mathias.     Works  II,  pp.  S5-8o. 

-^There  was  some  disagreement  among  scholars  as  to  their  authenticity.  War- 
ton  had  been  sceptical  when  he  first  saw  them  in  1772,  and  Johnson  had  satisfied 
himself  of  the  imposture  in  1776.  Walpole  seems  to  have  considered  them  genuine 
until  Mason  and  Gray,  to  whom  he  sent  the  manuscripts  sent  him  by  Chatterton, 


97]  HISTORY    OP    ENGLISH    POETRY,    VOL.    U  97 

uot  generally  accessible,-*  it  was  his  duty  to  give  them  a  place  if  only 
that  a  more  just  estimate  of  their  authenticity  might  be  formed,"  has 
some  weight,  and  he  was  the  first  to  attempt  an  adequate  discussion  of 
the  question. 

Wartou's  impartial  presentation  of  the  question  affords  an  illustra- 
tion of  his  openmindedness  that  is  the  more  interesting  and  creditable 
to  him  because  the  conclusion  at  which  he  had  arrived  seems  to  have 
been  unwelcome.  Apparently  he  would  have  been  glad  to  find  that  these 
remarkable  poems  were  really  the  work  of  a  monk  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury. 'It  is  with  regret  that  I  find  myself  obliged  to  pronounce  Kowlie's 
poems  to  be  spurious.  Antient  remains  of  English  poetry,  unexpectedly 
discovered,  and  fortunately  rescued  from  a  long  oblivion,  are  contem- 
plated with  a  degree  of  fond  enthusiasm :  exclusive  of  any  real  or  intrin- 
sic excellence,  they  afford  those  pleasures,  arising  from  the  idea  of 
antiquity,  which  deeply  interest  the  imagination.  With  these  pleasures 
we  are  unwilling  to  part.  But  there  is  a  more  solid  satisfaction,  result- 
ing from  the  detection  of  artifice  and  imposture.'-"  His  romantic  imagi- 
nation was  kindled  at  the  thought  of  poems  hidden  away  for  three 
hundred  years  in  Cannynge's  chest  in  Radcliffe  Church,  and  accidentally 
discovered  and  rescued  from  wanton  sacrifice  to  the  utilitarian  end  of 
making  writing-book  covers.  His  love  of  antiquarian  treasures  was  out- 
raged at  the  thought  of  what  might  have  been  in  this  way  lost  to 
literary  and  social  history.    He  rejoiced  that  the  schoolmaster  of  Bristol 

declared  them  forgeries.  Warton :  Enquiry  into  the  Authenticity  of  the  Poems 
attributed  to  Thomas  Rowley,  London,  1782,  p.  i.  Boswell's  Life,  Hill  Ed.  Ill,  p.  50, 
and  Letters,  I,  pp.  398  and  404.  Walpole :  Letters,  Toynbee  Ed.  X,  p.  246.  Cf .  also 
Die.  Nat.  Biog.  art.  Chalterton.  Goldsmith  believed  firmly  in  them.  Walpole: 
Works,  ed.  1798,  IV,  p.  224.  Tyrwhitt  had  not  given  up  the  authenticity  of  the  poems 
at  the  time  Warton's  discussion  was  written.  Emendations  to  the  Hist.  Eng. 
Poetry,  vol.  II,  p.  164.  His  appendix  to  prove  that  they  were  written  wholly  by 
Chatterton  was  added  to  the  third  edition  of  the  poems  which  appeared  simul- 
taneously with  Warton's  second  volume,  1778. 

=*Only  two  of  the  poems  were  printed  before  Tyrwhitt's  anonymous  edition  of 
Poems  supposed  to  have  been  written  at  Bristol,  by  Thomas  Roivley  and  others, 
in  the  Fifteenth  Century,  .  .  .  1777,  by  which  time  this  part  of  Warton's  history 
was  written.  Emendations,  II,  164.  Letters  to  Percy,  supra.  The  unknown 
author  of  An  Examination  of  the  poems  attributed  to  Thomas  Rowley,  and  William 
Cannynge.  With  a  defense  of  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Warton,  (?I782),  said,  'at  the 
time  Mr.  Warton  published  his  history,  these  Poems  were  not  published ;  only  few 
were  in  possession  of  copies  of  them ;  the  world  at  large  was  totally  ignorant  of 
their  contents.  .  .  .  Even  the  industry  of  Mr.  Warton  could  procure  but  few 
specimens  of  them  when  in  manuscript.'    p.  7. 

^^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  139. 

'^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  164. 


98  THOMAS  WARTON  [98 

was  not  without  a  taste  for  poetry  and  that  his  extraordinarily  gifted 
son  recognized  the  merits  of  the  poems  and  offered  them  to  the  world. 
The  possibilities  of  this  promising  situation  almost  carried  Warton  to  a 
belief  in  the  story, — but  when  he  turned  to  the  poems  themselves,  the 
illusion  vanished.'  Kowley  miglit  have  been  a  scholar,  an  historian,  an 
antiquary,  a  poet,  but  he  could  hardly  have  been  the  author  of  the  poems 
ascribed  to  him.-' 

Although  as  a  scholar  Warton  condemned  the  poems  as  forgeries, 
as  a  poet  he  could  not  but  be  struck  by  their  poetic  excellence, — no  less 
remarkable  as  the  work  of  a  boy  of  sixteen  than  as  that  of  a  monk  of 
the  fifteenth  century.  With  an  extravagant  enthusiasm,  more  like  that 
of  the  later  'romantic'  admirers  of  Chatterton  than  his  own  usual  mod- 
eration, he  exclaimed,  'This  youth,  who  died  at  eighteen,  was  a  prodigy 
of  genius:  and  would  have  proved  the  first  of  English  poets,  had  he 
reached  a  maturer  age.'-' 

Warton 's  discussion  of  the  Chatterton  forgeries,  although  the  first,^* 
was  by  no  means  the  last ;  the  controversy  was  kept  up  with  a  stubborn- 
ness that  was  made  possible  only  by  the  ignorance  and  gullibility  of  the 
Rowley  supporters.'"'  And  it  may  be  quite  as  well  to  anticipate  some- 
what and  finish  here  the  discussion  of  Warton 's  connection  with  it. 
While  the  question  of  authenticity  was  virtually  settled  from  the  start 
by  every  scholar  of  any  competence, — Gray,  Malone,  Johnson,  Warton, 
Tyrwhitt, — there  were  a  number  of  scholarly  clergjaneu  so  tenacious  of 
a  belief  very  scantily  based  upon  external  evidence  onl,y,  that  it  became 
necessary  for  final  and  decisive  proof  to  be  furnished  by  some  compe- 
tent authority.  Two  of  the  most  learned  men  of  the  age,  Warton  and 
Tyrwhitt,  offered  to  say  this  last  word  in  1782  f^  and  the  efforts  of  both 
\fere  of  nearly  equal  effect  at  the  time  of  their  publication;  they  con- 
vinced all  who  were  open  to  conviction. 

The  merit  of  Warton 's  conclusion  in  the  Chatterton  controversy  can  be 

■''Ibid.,  p.  156. 

-^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  157.  Chas.  Kent,  in  the  Diet.  Nat.  Biog.  erroneously 
ascribed  this  remark  to  Joseph  Warton. 

soWalpole's  Letter  to  the  Editor  of  the  Miscellanies  of  Chatterton,  Strawberry- 
Hill;  1779,  is  rather  a  discussion  of  Walpole's  relations  with  Chatterton  than  of  the 
forgeries  themselves     Walpole's  Works,  IV,  p.  207  ff. 

'"For  bibliography  of  the  Chatterton  controversy,  see  Chattertoniana,  by  F.  A. 
Hyett  and  W.  Bazeley.    Gloucester,  1914. 

^'Warton:  An  Enquiry  into  the  Authenticity  of  the  Poems  attributed  to 
Thomas  Rowley.  In  which  the  arguments  of  the  Dean  of  Exeter,  and  Mr.  Bryant 
are  c.ramined.    London,  1782.    Two  editions  in  the  same  year. 

Tyrwhitt:  A  Vindication  of  the  Appendix  to  the  Poems,  called  Rowley's,  in 
teply  to  the  Answers  of  the  Dean  of  Exeter,  etc.,  London,  1782. 


99]  HISTORY    OF    ENGLISH    POETRY,    VOL.    11  99 

adequatel}^  appreciated  only  by  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  he  reached 
it  not  only  in  opposition  to  his  inclination,  but  without  the  help  of  any 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  fifteenth  century  such  as 
Tyrwhitt  possessed,  and  its  importance  only  by  the  fact  just  mentioned 
that  it  contributed  quite  as  much  to  settle  the  controversy  in  the  eight- 
eenth century  as  even  Tyrwhitt 's  more  seholarlj'  essay.  It  is  a  striking 
fact  that  although  Warton's  criticism  of  Chatterton's  affected  obsolete 
words  could  be  based  only  upon  superficial  observation,  he  not  only 
objected  to  their  genuineness  on  this  ground,  but  was  able  to  cite  some 
of  the  very  books  from  which  the  young  poet  must  actually  have  derived 
his  remarkable  voeabulary.'- 

Moreover,  the  conclusiveness  of  a  purely  scholarl.y  argument  based 
entirely  upon  accurate  knowledge  of  the  philological  side  of  the  problem 
was  not  so  promptly  recognized  in  an  age  of  general  ignorance  of  phil- 
ology as  it  would  be  today.  A  proof  that  would  convince  the  dilettante  sup- 
porters of  Rowley  must  be  based  upon  the  more  obvious  qualities  of  the 
poems  which  they  could  recognize.  This  was  the  sort  of  argument  that 
"Warton's  pamphlet  furnished.  Therefore  whatever  superiority  Tyrwhitt 
showed  as  a  philologist  was  equalled  by  Warton's  superiority  as  a  critic 
and  student  of  literature, — a  fact  that  has  not  always  received  due 
credit.  He  was  able  to  compare  the  literary  traditions  and  conditions 
of  the  fifteenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  and  decide  even  without  refer- 
ence to  specific  language  tests,  to  which  period  a  group  of  poems  be- 
longed. By  this  metliod  he  easily  demonstrated  that  the  affiliations  of 
the  Rowley  poems  were  altogether  with  the  eighteenth  century.  He 
concluded  the  discussion  thus,  'Upon  the  whole,  ...  if  there  are  such 
things  as  principles  of  analogy,  if  the  rules  which  criticism  has  estab- 
lished for  judging  of  the  age  of  a  poem,  are  beyond  the  caprice  of  con- 
jecture, then  are  the  Tragedy  op  Ella  and  the  Battle  op  Hastings, 
modern  compositions:  if  they  are  antieut,  then  are  the  elegancies  of 
Gibbon's  style  coeval  with  the  deplorable  prose  of  Caxton.'^' 

Returning  to  the  proper  subjects  of  the  history  of  poetry  in  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  the  Chaucerian  imitators,  Warton 
found  less  interesting  material  than  the  Chatterton  forgeries;  imagina- 
tion was  more  and  more  oppressed  by  conscious  effort.  Yet  he  creditably 
performed  the  duty  of  an  historian,  considering  carefully  the  relations 
between  Hawes^*  and  Lydgate,  between  Barclay's  Ship  of  Fools  and 

^-Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  157.  See  also  Skeat's  ed.  Chatterton,  London,  1901, 
2  vols.     II,  pp.  xxv-xxvii,  and  xli. 

^^Enquiry,  p.  90. 

^*Warton  was  cited  as  an  authority  on  Hawes  by  Thomas  Wright  in  the  only 
modern  edition  of  the  Pastime  of  Pleasure,  for  the  Percy  Society,  vol.  18,  1845. 


100  THOMAS  WABTON  [100 

Brandt's  Narrenschiffe  through  Latin  and  French  translations,  and  the 
growing  modernity  of  the  language  of  these  poets.  He  aceomi)anied  the 
whole  with  numerous  quotations  from  these  then  almost  inaccessible 
fifteenth  century  poems^'  of  almost  unknown  poets.  He  also  found  it 
necessary,  as  has  every  other  historian  of  English  poetry,  to  give  an 
account  of  the  Scottish  poets'"  who  preserved  the  traditions  of  Chaucer 
as  none  of  his  English  successors  was  able  to  preserve  it,  and  who 
'adorned  the  ....  period,  with  a  degree  of  sentiment  and  spirit,  a 
command  of  phraseology',  and  a  fertility  of  imagination,  not  to  be  found 
in  any  English  poet  since  Chaucer  and  Lydgate.'" 

Two  significant  points  stand  out  in  the  discussion  of  the  poems  of 
Dunbar,  Douglas  and  Lindsay  :'*  the  theory  of  poetic  diction  implied  in 
the  experiment  of  turning  Douglas's  Prologue  to  May^^  into  prose  to 
show  that  its  high  poetic  quality  did  not  depend  altogether  upon  the 
form,  and  the  recognition  of  the  influence  of  racial  characteristics  in 
national  poetry.  Warton's  experiment  of  placing  a  prose  paraphrase 
in  juxt^ipositiou  with  the  poem  to  show  the  originality  of  the  poet's 
genius  and  the  beauty  of  its  poetical  matter  independent  of  its  form — 
a  test  to  whicli  it  would  have  been  dangerous  to  subject  much  of  Queen 
Anne  poetry — was  a  great  stride  in  the  direction  of  the  new  romantic 
conception  of  poetry ;  it  suggests  Wordsworth 's  theory  of  poetic  diction 
without  its  absurdities.  For  although  Warton  intended  a  deliberate 
revolt  against  the  too  prevalent  tendency  to  regard  poetry  as  largely  a 
more  or  less  skillful  combination  of  poetic  diction  and  metrical  compo- 
sition, he  did  not  go  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  regarding  these  things 
as  non-essentials,  of  considering  the  prose  form  as  quite  as  poetical  as 
the  verse  form.     Of  the  characteristic  beauties  of  Douglas's  poem  he 

ssWarton's  quotations  from  Barclay's  eclogues  were  particularly  valuable,  for 
those  poems  were  reprinted  from  the  exceedingly  rare  black  letter  folio  of  1570, 
from  which  he  quoted  them  only  in  1885,  for  the  Spenser  Society,  vol.  39.  See  also 
T.  H.  Jamieson's  edition  of  the  Ship  of  Fools,  2  vols.     1874.     Prefatory  note. 

'"Warton's  not  very  valuable  sources,  besides  the  universal  histories,  were  the 
collection  of  biographies  amassed  by  the  over-patriotic  Dempster,  Historia  Ecclesi- 
aslica  Gentis  Scoiorum,  Bologna,  1627,  and  MacKenzie's  'shapeless  mass  of  inert 
matter,'  The  Lives  and  Characters  of  the  Most  Eminent  Writers  of  the  Scotch- 
Nation.    1708-22. 

^''Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  257. 

''Warton  had  mentioned  James  I's  King's  Complaint,  as  he  called  it,  in  his 
second  volume  (note  p.  125)  where  the  poem  was  first  mentioned  and  quoted 
from. 

"The  poem  was  not  unknown.  Two  English  versions  had  appeared  in  1752, 
one  in  the  Scot's  Magazine,  by  Jerome  Stone,  the  other  by  Francis  Fawkes.  The 
latter  was  also  included  in  Original  Poems  and  Translations,  1761.  Fawkes's 
translation  was  reprinted  for  the  Aungerville  Society,  1884-6,  vol.  III. 


101]  HISTORY    OP    ENGLISH    POETRY,    VOL.    H  101 

said,  'Divested  of  poetic  numbers  and  expression,  they  still  retain  their 
poetry;  and  ....  appear  like  Ulysses,  still  a  king  and  conqueror,  al- 
though disguised  like  a  peasant.'*"  This  experiment  is  part  of  Warton's 
general  revolt,  both  in  poetry  and  in  criticism,  against  the  artificial 
poetry  written  by  the  Augustan  poets  and  upheld  by  the  Augustan 
critics,*'  and  his  attempt  to  re-establish  a  higher  kind  of  poetry  which 
combines  poetic  substance  and  poetic  form  in  an  inseparable  whole. 

It  was  the  jironiinence  of  satire  in  the  Scotch  allegorical  poetry, 
especially  the  satire  of  church  abuses,  that  led  Warton  to  remark  the 
influeuce  upon  Scotch  literature  of  the  characteristic  Scotch  temper,  a 
kind  of  remark  more  common  in  the  next  century  than  in  his  own.  The 
modernity  of  Warton's  attitude  becomes  more  apparent  when  one  com- 
pares it  with  Dr.  Johnson's  contempt  for  the  Scotch  temper  which  he 
never  attempted  to  understand.  Warton  however  pointed  out  that  in 
the  peculiarly  pliilosophieal  or  rationalistic  temper  of  the  Scotch,  a 
disposition  almost  without  imagination  and  responsive  not  to  an  imagi- 
native and  sensuous  appeal  but  to  reason  alone,  was  to  be  found  the 
explanation  of  the  ready  adoption  in  Scotland  of  the  severe  reformed 
religion  and  of  the  greater  violence  and  abundance  of  satirical  attacks 
upon  the  Roman  Catholic  faith. *- 

The  originality  of  Skelton,  as  it  seemed  not  to  have  its  source  in 
more  lively  imagination,  did  not  atone,  in  the  mind  of  the  historian, 
for  the  deliberate  roughness  of  his  verse,  and  his  satirical  power,  rein- 
forced though  it  was  with  humour  and  the  gift  of  personification,  he 
did  not  think  adequate  to  excuse  his  coarseness.  Warton  had  much 
of  the  eighteenth  century  insistence  upon  sound  moral  standards 
in  criticism.  As  an  historian  of  the  progress  of  literature,  he  did 
not  fail  to  consider  in  his  discussion  of  Skelton  the  importance  of  his 
moralities  in  the  history  of  the  drama;  in  this  connection  is  the  mention 
of  the  moral  interlude  of  Nigramansir,*^  since  lost. 

*'>Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  TI,  p.  289. 

*'See  Johnson's  Life  of  Dryden,  Works,  ed.  cit.  Ill,  p.  439.  Even  Gray  recog- 
nized a  well-established  poetic  diction.  See  letter  to  West,  Works,  Ed.  Gosse,  1884, 
II,  p.  108. 

*-Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  321. 

*'There  has  been  no  record  of  Xigramaiisir  since  Warton  saw  it  in  the  library 
of  William  Collins,  at  Chichester,  not  long  before  the  latter's  death  in  1759.  When 
the  valuable  collection  that  he  had  made  for  his  intended  History  of  the  Restora- 
tion of  Learning  under  Leo  the  Tenth  was  dispersed,  this  unique  voKinic  seems  to 
have  wholly  disappeared.  Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  361.  But  there  is  not,  I  think, 
any  just  reason  for  doubting  Warton's  honesty  in  this  matter  on  this  account.  The 
perfectly  simple  and  straightforward  account  of  the  book  which  he  gives,  exactly 
of  a  piece  with  many  others  that  are  unquestionable,  is,  per  se,  more  probable  than 


102  THOMAS  WARTON  [102 

To  repeat  wliat  cannot  perhaps  be  overemphasized,  the  great  theme 
of  Warton's  first  volume  was  the  rise  and  influence  of  mediaeval  ro- 
mances upon  English  poetry;  the  corresponding  subject  of  the  second 
volume  was  the  revival  of  learning  and  its  counter  influence.  His 
attitu<lf  toward  the  renaissance  combines  genuine  appreciation  of  clas- 
sical literature,  of  the  'faultless  models  of  Greece  and  Rome,'  and  of 
the  immense  gain  in  depth  and  breadth  they  brought  to  p]nglish  learning, 
with  enthusiasm  for  the  marvelous  and  delightful  creations  of  the  dark 
ages  whose  disappearance  he  regarded  with  regret.  But  much  as  he 
realized  the  poetical  value  of  niedia'val  life,  its  variety  and  richness, 
the  very  savagery  and  irregularity  of  the  incidents  and  adventures  of 
chivalry,  he  regarded  the  revival  of  learning  as  a  necessary  corrective 
of  its  faults,  as  a  'mighty  deliverance  after  many  imperfect  and  inter- 
rupted efforts  in  which  the  mouldering  Gothic  fabrics  of  false  religion 
and  false  philosophy  fell  together;'  and  he  pointed  out  that  it  was  event- 
ually followed  by  a  period  of  high  attainment,  that  'soon  after  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth,  men  attained  that  state  of  general  improvement,  and 
those  situations  with  respect  to  literature  and  life,  in  which  they  have 
ever  since  persevered.'" 

The  historian's  careful  balance  of  these  two  important  elements  in 
the  early  renaissance,  the  waning  influence  of  medieval  poetry  and  the 
growing  power  of  classical  learning,  has  an  added  significance  since  their 
heirs — the  decadent  classicism  of  the  Augustan  age  and  that  fresh  infu- 
sion of  imagination  from  a  variety  of  sources  which  is  commonly  called 
the  romantic  revival — were  disputing  the  supremacy  of  poetry  in  his  own 
day,  and  he  had  a  remarkably  clear  perception  of  the  growing  chauge 

Ritson's  ill-natiircd  accusation  that  he  invented  the  whole  account.  Ritson :  Bib- 
liograp!\ia  Pocticu,  p.  lo6.  .Absence  of  motive  for  the  deceit,  Warton's  general 
honesty,  his  effort  to  secure  accuracy  of  detail,  and  the  certainty  that  many  volumes 
must  have  disappeared,  incline  us  to  accept  Warton's  statement  for  the  existence 
in  1759  of  the  morality  he  described.  Bliss  defended  Warton  with  the  statement 
that  he  had  'so  frequently  seen  and  handled  volumes  mentioned  by  Warton  and 
denied  to  exist  by  Ritson,'  that  he  had  no  doubt  of  the  authenticity  of  the  account. 
^Itlirn.  Oxoii.  ed.  :8i3-20,  I,  p.  53. 

The  incompatibility  of  the  accounts  of  the  date,  size,  and  printers  of  the  Mag- 
nificcncc  text  scarcely  affects  this  matter.  While  such  confusion  is  certainly  rep- 
rehensible, it  is  not  a  question  of  honesty  but  of  care.  It  is  very  easy  to  see  how 
such  mistakes  could  have  been  made.  Probably  the  last  reference  was  the  only 
one  made  from  Warton's  own  observation;  the  others  may  have  been  made  from 
memory,  or  from  an  inaccurate  communication.  Emendations  to  II,  363.  See  also 
the  edition  of  Magnificence  for  the  Early  Eng.  Text  Soc,  vol.  36-38,  by  R.  L. 
Ramsay,  liitrod.  pp.  xviii-xix  and  note  2. 

**Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  462. 


103]  HISTORY   OP   ENGLISH   POETRY,   VOL.    H  103 

and  of  its  significance.  He  looked  back  to  this  earlier  period  both  as  one 
of  important  progress  and  as  the  source  of  the  sterile  classical  imitation 
prevalent  in  his  time,  and  he  hailed  with  enthusiasm  the  revival  of  imagi- 
nation as  a  sign  of  a  new  birth  in  poetry. 

Therefore  in  an  age  wliicli  perpetuated  more  of  the  defects  than 
the  virtues  of  the  revival  of  classical  learning  in  England,  "Warton  was 
disposed  to  emphasize  the  charms  of  the  more  imaginative  past,  showing 
in  this  respect  a  close  sympathy  with  some  of  the  more  extreme  'roman- 
ticists'. With  Rousseau,*^  who  however  lacked  Warton 's  steadying  sense 
of  the  danger  attending  upon  unrestrained  indulgence  in  the  pleasures 
of  imagination,  he  hailed  'ignorance  and  superstition,  so  opposite  to 
the  real  interests  of  human  society,  (as)  the  parents  of  imagination.'*' 
W^ith  Heine*'  he  perceived  the  romantic  quality  of  the  mediaeval  reli- 
gion and  the  tremendous  stimulus  given  to  literature  by  the  picturesque 
and  poetical  appendages  of  the  Catholic  worship,  which  'disposed  the 
mind  to  a  state  of  deception;'  whose  'visions,  miracles,  and  legends, 
propagated  a  general  propensity  to  the  Marvellous,  and  strengthened 
the  belief  of  spectres,  demons,  witches,  and  incantations.'** 

Without  really  underestimating  the  immense  gain  in  'good  sense, 
good  taste,  and  good  criticism'  which  had  followed  the  revival  of  learn- 
ing, he  lamented  the  loss  to  pure  poetry  that  had  been  consequent  upon 
it,  and  he  closed  his  second  volume  somewhat  as  he  had  closed  the  first, 
with  regret  for  the  vanished  beauties  of  the  middle  ages:  'We  have 
parted  with  extravagancies  that  are  above  propriety,  with  incredibilities 
that  are  more  acceptable  than  truth,  and  with  fictions  that  are  more 
valuable  than  realitv.'** 


*'Discours  sur  les  Sciences  et  Ics  Arts,  1750. 
*'Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  462. 
*''Die  Roinantischc  Schule,  1833. 
*^Hist.  Eng.  Poetrx,  II,  p.  462. 
*nbid.  II,  463. 


CHAPTER  YII 
TnK  History  of  English  Poetry.     Volume  111,  1781 

The  Dawn  of  the  Great  Poetic  Age 

The  third  volume  of  the  history  followed  the  second  after  an  inter- 
val of  three  years;  it  was  published  in  1781;  probably,  considering  the 
author's  inevitable  hindrances,  as  soon  as  it  could  be  i)ropared  for  the 
printer.  Again  the  historian  permitted  himself  an  even  more  detailed 
treatment  of  his  material,  so  that  the  third  volume  only  introduced  the 
Elizabethan  age  and  a  fourth  had  to  be  promised  to  complete  the  work. 
As  Warton  drew  nearer  to  that  great  poetic  age.  he  became  more  and 
more  keenly  aware  of  its  relation  to  the  two  great  influences  he  had 
been  tracing  through  his  earlier  volumes,  mediffival  poetrj-  and  the 
revival  of  learning.  He  had  shown  how  well  adapted  to  poetry  were 
the  unrestrained  imaginings  of  the  mediffival  romances  and  how  the 
commencement  of  the  revival  of  learning  had  blighted  this  first  poetical 
blossoming ;  he  was  now  to  show  that  this  blight  was  but  temporary,  or 
rather,  that  the  conjunction  of  learning  and  romance  was  really  a  period 
of  fertilization,  of  which  the  English  renaissance  was  the  fruit.  The 
English  renaissance  was  not  however  so  simple  a  matter  as  this,  and 
Warton  did  not  fail  to  see  its  complexity.  His  discussion  of  this  impor- 
tant, but  then  little  understood,  movement  shows  a  conception  of  its 
remoter  causes,  its  larger  outlines,  and  its  minute  details  that. is  remark- 
ably accurate  and  was  more  illuminating  than  can  now  well  be  imagined, 
for  the  period  was  then  one  of  the  most  neglected ;  even  its  greatest 
poets  were  only  beginning  to  come  into  their  ovm,  and  the  minor  ones 
were  all  but  wholly  unknown.  It  shows  also  the  knowledge  of  other 
literatures,  the  ability  to  use  the  comparative  method,  that  has  been 
often  mentioned  as  one  of  the  author's  chief  claims  to  originality  and 
permanent  value  as  a  critic  and  historian. 

"Warton  at  once  connected  the  revival  of  classical  learning  and  the 
renewed  interest  in  Italian  literature  as  factoi's  in  the  English  renais- 
sance, yet  he  recognized  the  characteristic  influence  of  each.  Since  he 
had  discussed  the  revival  of  learning  in  the  second  volume,  he  began 
the  third  with  the  study  of  the  influence  of  Italian  literature  in  Eng- 
land. This  influence  he  did  not  regard  as  wholly  new,  since  he  had 
previously  recognized  Chaucer's  pupilage  to  Italian  masters.  The  imi- 
tation of  Petrarch  by  the  English  sonneteers  was,  of  course,  the  first 


105]  HISTORY    OF    ENGLISH    POETRY,    VOL.    HI  105 

Italian  influeuce  to  be  considered.  But  closely  as  Wartou  connected 
the  influence  of  Italian  literature  in  England  with  the  revival  of  learn- 
ing, his  familiarity  with  mediaeval  literature  showed  him  that  this 
outburst  of  sonneteering  had  roots  there  also ;  that  while  '  intercourse  with 
Italy  .  .  .  gave  a  new  turn  to  our  vernacular  poetry ','  the  popularity  of 
the  new  models  was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  their  English  advocates, 
notably  Surrey,"  were  educated  in  a  court  where  ideas  of  chivalry  still 
prevailed,  and  were  inspired  by  as  romantic  passions  as  were  the 
mediaeval  heroes  of  romance.  Tlie  story  of  Surrey 's  life  loses  none  of  its 
romantic  charm  in  Warton's  telling  and  serves  to  introduce  and  partly 
to  explain  Surrey's  difference  from  Wyatt, — his  greater  spontaneity,  sim- 
plicity and  naturalness. 

Warton  did  not,  of  course,  attempt  the  impossible  task  of  trying 
to  separate  wholly  the  indirect  influence  of  the  revival  of  the  classics 
which  the  study  of  Italian  literature  introduced  into  England,  from 
the  direct  influence  of  the  classics  themselves,  especiall}-  when  both  were 
combined  in  the  work  of  one  poet.  In  the  case  of  Surrey  he  was  able 
to  make  a  slight  distinction  and  to  ascribe  his  translation  of  the  Acneid 
to  classical  influence  as  definitely  as  he  did  the  sonnets  to  Italian.  His 
insistence  upon  the  at  least  equal  importance  of  the  Aeneid  was  par- 
ticularity valuable  at  a  time  when  that  poem  had  been  almost  entirely 
overlooked.^  The  importance  of  the  translation  he  based  upon  the  two- 
fold contribution  of  the  classical  renaissance  to  English  poetr.v.  As 
'the  first  composition  in  blank  verse,  extant  in  the  English  language,' 
he  hailed  it  as  'a  noble  attempt  to  break  the  bondage  of  rhyme''' — the 
result  of  a  similar  revolt  in  Italy  under  the  influence  of  the  study  and 
imitation  of  the  classics — and  to  improve  the  English  versification  by 
the  introduction  of  new  models  and  'new  elegancies  of  composition.' 
As  a  vernacular  version  of  a  classical  poem  he  assigned  it  to  the  inun- 
dation of  classical  translations  that  had  been  steadily  enriching  the  stock 
of  poetical  material  and  acting  as  a  stimulus  to  creative  poetry,  that 
had  been  making  'the  divinities  and  heroes  of  pagan  antiquity'  so 
familiar  that  they  not  only  'decorated  every  composition'   but   were 

^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  III,  p.  i. 

^Ibid.  p.  27.  Perhaps  because  Tottel  gave  Surrey  greater  prominence,  Warton 
seems  to  have  considered  him  the  pioneer,  and  thereby  lost  the  opportunity  of  cor- 
rectly explaining  the  difference  between  him  and  Wyatt. 

''I  know  of  no  English  critic  besides  [Ascham],  who  has  mentioned  Surrey's 
Virgil,  except  Bolton,  a  great  reader  of  old  English  books.'  Hist.  Eng.  Poetry, 
III,  p.  24,  note  p. 

*Ibid.,  p.  21. 

^Ibid.,  p.  24. 


106  THOM.VS  WiVRTON  [106 

upon  the  lips  even  of  the  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor.'  It  is  not  surpris- 
ing to  SCO  Warton  fiiul  the  secret  of  the  tremendous  vogue  of  classical 
stories  in  tlie  attractions  of  their  unusual  fictions  for  the  romance-loving 
English  poet,  so  that  the  'extravagancies'  of  these  'fabulous  inventions' 
were  imitated  before  'their  natural  beauties,'  'regularity  of  design  and 
justness  of  sentiment,''  were  perceived. 

In  the  Mirror  for  Magistrates  Warton  found  all  the  important 
influences  upon  the  sixteenth  century  combined  in  a  work  that  had  the 
added  significance  of  forming  a  link  connecting  this  tradition  with 
Spenser.  Singling  out  the  description  of  hell  in  Sackville's  Induction 
as  the  most  striking  part  of  the  whole,  he  made  a  comparative  study  of 
its  relation  to  its  sources  which  included  Homer,  Virgil  and  Dante,  and 
was  a  conspicuous  example  of  the  comparative  method  of  criticism  which 
he  alone  of  his  contemporaries  adequately  valued'  or  was  able  to  achieve.' 
Tliat  tlie  Inferno  was  inehuled  in  the  comparison  shows  too  the  extent 
of  the  historian's  scholarship  in  an  age  when  wide  knowledge  of  Italian 
was  rare,  and  Dante  was  held  in  much  less  respect  than  Tasso  or 
Aristo.'"  Here  again  Warton 's  taste  for  mediaeval  poetry  enabled  him 
to  appreciate  a  poet  whose  predominating  characteristics  were  mediffival, 

"Ibid.,  p.  494. 

■Ibid. 

sRitson  is  perhaps  an  extreme  example.  He  showed  his  complete  inability 
even  to  appreciate  the  comparative  method  when,  in  his  Observations  on  the  three 
first  volumes  of  the  History  of  English  Poetry,  he  asked,  'What  possible  connection 
is  there  between  the  Divina  Comedia,  and  the  History  of  English  Poetry?'    p.  38. 

"Professor  Saintsbury,  who  never  does  full  justice  to  Warton,  credits  Gray 
alone  of  English  critics  of  this  century  with  the  ability  to  use  the  comparative 
method ;  but  certainly  Gray  has  left  less  evidence  of  it  than  has  Warton.  History 
of  Criticism,  HI,  p.  462. 

'"Paget  Toynbee's  valuable  assemblage  of  references  to  Dante  in  the  eight- 
eenth century  shows  at  a  glance  the  meagerness  of  eighteenth  century  knowledge 
of  Dante,  so  that  Warton  appears  as  the  largest  contributor  to  general  acquaintance 
with  the  Divine  Comedy  before  the  translation  in  1782.  Dante  in  English  Litera- 
ture from  Chaucer  to  Cary,  2  vols.    New  York,  1909. 

But  Mr.  Toynbee  is  not  quite  fair  to  Warton,  and  does  not  recognize  the 
qualitative  as  well  as  quantitative  difference  in  his  criticism. 

.•\n  anonymous  contributor  to  the  Edinburgh  Rez'ieu'  for  July,  1833,  in  a 
review  of  Wright's  translation  of  the  Inferno,  appreciated  the  relation  of  Warton's 
work  to  the  prevailing  ignorance  of  Dante.  He  said:  'The  Divine  Comedy  was 
still  a  sealed  volume  in  scholastic  libraries,  when  the  two  Wartons,  who  had  some 
life  in  them  during  one  of  the  deadest  periods  of  our  literature,  distinguished 
themselves  by  their  endeavours  to  attract  to  it  the  attention  of  the  English  public. 
So  little  was  it  known,  that  Thomas  Warton  introduced  an  analysis  of  it  in  his 
history  of  English  Poetry.'    Vol.  57,  p.  +20. 


■MMI 


107]  HISTORY    OF    ENGLISH    POETRY,    VOL.    Ill  107 

and  helped  liim  to  discover  that  the  Divine  Comedy  had  'sublimity'  even 
in  its  'absurdities',  and  'originality  of  invention'  in  its  'grossest  impro- 
prieties'." He  declared  that  the  poem  had  a  classical  groundwork  deco- 
rated with  'many  Gothic  and  extravagant  innovations',  and  pointed  out 
that  'the  charms  which  we  so  much  admire  in  Dante,  do  not  belong  to 
the  Greeks  and  Romans.  They  are  derived  from  another  origin,  and 
must  be  traced  back  to  a  different  stock. ''= 

Wartou's  method  of  comparing  the  ideas  of  various  poets  and 
studying  their  influence  upon  one  another  is  altogether  different  from 
the  'parallel-passage-aud-plagiarism  mania"^  which  seized  his  contem- 
poraries when  they  undertook  comparisons.  In  comparing  the  Inferno 
and  Saekville's  Induction,  he  sharpened  the  distinction  by  a  clear  expo- 
sition of  the  characteristic  merits  of  each.  The  power  of  vivid  descrip- 
tion of  allegorical,  or  at  least  of  abstract,  characters,  so  that  they  appear 
laore  like  real  than  imaginary  personages,  he  justh'  considered  Sack- 
dlle's  peculiar  gift,  a  gift  he  passed  on  to  Spenser,**  and  thereby  'greatly 
enlarged  the  former  narrow  bounds  of  our  ideal  imagery.'" 

Aji  historian  with  a  marked  and  indulged  curiosity  about  every 
field  of  literature  could  not,  of  course,  leave  Sackville  without  discussing 
the  classical  tragedj'  in  which  he  had  a  share,  especially  when  he  recog- 
nized it  as  'perhaps  the  first  specimen  in  our  language  of  an  heroic  tale, 
written  in  blank  verse,  divided  into  acts  and  scenes,  and  cloathed  in  all 
the  formalities  of  a  regular  t^aged}^'*''  And  since  by  the  third  volume 
the  reader  has  lost  any  desire  he  may  once  have  cherished  to  hold  War- 
ton  strictly  to  his  subject,  he  welcomes  each  valuable  digression.  The 
discussion  of  Gorboduc  is  justified  by  its  close  connection  with  the  revival 
of  classical  learning  and  with  the  history  of  the  drama."^'  Moreover  the 
comment  upon  Gorboduc  as  a  tragedy  is  a  sound  piece  of  criticism, 
indicating  a  theory  of  tragedy  based  upon  a  judicious  combination  of 
classical  and  romantic  practice,  which  one  wishes  had  been  more  fully 
developed.  When  Warton  upheld  the  moral  purpose  of  tragedy,  he 
wished  not  'the  intermixture  of  moral  sentences,'  but  'pathetic  and 
critical  situations,'  'force  of  example,'  and  'the  effect  of  the  story';  and 
he  insisted  that  'sentiment  and  argument  will  never  supply  the  place 

^^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  III,  p.  241. 
"/6id.,  p.  2SS. 

i^Saintsbury,  Hist.  Crit.  Ill,  p.  70.  Warton  censured  this  abuse  in  his  Obs.  on 
the  F.  Q.  ed.  cit.  II,  p.  i. 

^*See  also  Obs.  F.  Q.  II,  pp.  101-3. 
^^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  III,  p.  233. 
"/6irf.   Ill,  p.  355. 
"Ibid.  p.  372,  ff. 


108  THOMAS  WARTON  [108 

of  action  upon  tin-  stage.'"  He  required  that  classical  restraint  of 
language  be  coiiil)ineil  with  vivid  and  consistent  cliaracterization  and 
importance  and  complexity  of  plot,  and  that  all  should  contribute  to 
dramatic  action.  Occasional  references  to  Shakespeare  show  that  "War- 
ton  recognized  his  'eternal  dominion  over  the  hearts  of  mankind',"  and 
that  he  condemned  his  violations  of  the  unities  of  time  and  place,  defects 
which  the  critic  says  "he  covers  by  the  magic  of  his  poetry.'-"  Wartou 
further  declared  that  'Shakespeare's  genius  alone'  was  able  'to  triumph 
and  to  predominate'  over  the  'extravagancies'  and  'barbarous  ideas  of 
[his]  times.'-' 

It  has  been  said  that  Warton  explained  the  popularity  and  the 
power  of  the  Italian  and  classical  translations  and  imitations  by  the  initial 
appeal  of  their  fictions  to  the  English  fondness  for  stories,  which  had  sur- 
vived from  the  mediaeval  age.  But  he  would  not  have  it  thought  that 
the  romantic  tradition  survived  onlj'  as  a  taste  for  extravagant  fictions; 
numerous  printed  editions  of  old  romances  in  modernized  versions" 
proved  the  vitality  of  the  romances  themselves,  and  the  Nut  hrowne 
Maide,  considered  as  a  sixteenth  century  poem,  showed  him  that  creative 
power  had  not  wholly  declined.  This  error  in  date,-*  which  is  easily 
explained  by  "Warton 's  arguments  for  its  modernity,  is  of  less  signifi- 
cance than  his  genuine  and  un-Augustan  enthusiasm  for  the  poem.  The 
wide  interval  that  separates  Warton  from  the  old  school  is  clearly  shown 
by  the  contrast  between  his  estimate  of  the  poem  and  Prior's  conven- 
tional imitation  of  it,  and  Dr.  Johnson's  opinion  of  them.  Dr.  Johnson 
had  sternly  condemned  the  story  for  its  low  morality,  and  said  that  it 
'deserves  no  imitation',  and,  finding  no  merit  in  the  theme,  he  dismissed 
Prior's  poem  as  a  'dull  and  tedious  dialogue.'-^  "Warton,  on  the  other 
hand,  with  a  far  more  catholic  taste,  admired  the  simplicity,  warm  sen- 
timent, and  skilful  construction  of  the  older  poem,  and  deplored  the  fact 
that  Prior "s  garbled  version  had  'misconceived  and  essentially  marred 
his  poet's  design.'-* 

^"Ibid.  pp.  362-3. 

"/fcirf.  p.  362. 

^oibid.  p.  358. 

^'Ibid.  p.  435. 

'-Ibid.  pp.  58,  142. 

^'Fairly  familiar  to  eighteenth  century  readers  from  Prior's  version,  Henry 
and  Emilia,  in  Poems  on  Several  Occasions,  1709,  and  its  inclusion  in  Capel's 
Prolusions,  1760,  and  Percy's  Reliques,  1765. 

=*He  could  not  have  made  the  mistake  had  he  known  the  first  edition  of 
Arnold's  Chronicle,  (1502?)  instead  of  only  the  second,  1525. 

"Li/f  of  Prior,  Johnson's  Works,  Ed.  cit.  Ill,  p.  619. 

=»//«/.  Eng.  Poetry,  III,  p.  140. 


109]  HISTORY    OF    ENGLISH    POETRY,    VOL.    ni  109 

In  considering  the  Italian,  classical  and  romantic  traditions  as  the 
dominant  influences  upon  the  great  poetical  revival  in  Elizabeth's  reign, 
"Warton  did  not  by  any  means  overlook  such  other  important  influences 
not  primarily  literary  as  the  protestant  reformation  and  the  new  nation- 
alism, nor  did  he  pass  over  such  related  subjects  as  the  development  of 
English  prose  and  the  rise  of  criticism;  for  he  was  always  quick  to  see 
the  close  relation  of  literature  to  the  environment  in  which  it  was  pro- 
duced, and  to  study  the  effect  of  political  and  religious  movements  upon 
it.  His  historical  sense  caught  the  immediate  effect  of  the  reformation 
upon  poetry  at  the  same  time  that  his  religious  instincts  and  poetical 
taste  were  offended  by  the  atrocious  verse  of  the  'mob  of  religious 
rhymers,  who,  from  principles  of  the  most  unfeigned  piety,  devoutly 
laboured  to  darken  the  lustre,  and  enervate  the  force,  of  the  divine 
pages. '-^  His  frequently  expressed  disgust  with  many  practices  of  the 
protestant  reformers  did  not,  however,  prevent  his  making  a  reaUy 
thorough  study  of  the  origins  of  reformation  poetry, — the  popular 
adaptations  of  psalms  of  the  French  free-thinker,  Clement  Marot,  the 
popularizing  of  religion,  and  the  need  of  a  substitute  for  the  religious 
forms  abolished  by  the  rigid  Cahinists.-*  Yet  he  would  have  been  no 
true  critic  if  he  had  not  seen  that  this  'new  mode  of  universal  psalmody' 
was  unworthy  of  the  name  of  poetry,  and  no  true  son  of  the  established 
church  if  he  had  not  resented  the  substitution  of  a  bare  'mental  inter- 
course with  the  deity'  for  the  impressive  beauty  of  church  ceremonies. 
Nor  could  his  keen  sense  of  humour  miss  the  opportunity  to  expose  the 
absurdity  of  more  than  one  'dignified  fanatic's  divine  poetry'  by  putting 
it  in  juxtaposition  with  an  'ungodlie  ballad'  in  the  same  doggerel  metre, 
— from  which  inevitable  comparison  the  rollicking  Back  and  side  go  hare 
suffered  least. -^ 

While  Warton  realized  that  the  religious  and  political  ferment  of 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century  was  on  the  whole  unfavourable  at 
first  to  poetry,  he  found  one  important  new  poetic  interest  growing  out 
of  it.  The  first  indication  of  the  awakening  of  interest  in  the  national 
history  as  a  subject  for  poetry  he  found  in  Saekville's  Mirror  for  Magis- 
trates and  its  numerous  continuations.  And  it  was  only  by  the  judicious 
application  of  the  historical  method  that  the  importance  of  a  poem  of 
relatively  slight  intrinsic  value  could  have  been  discovered.  Warton 
fuUy  appreciated  the  added  richness  that  was  given  to  English  poetry 
through  the  opening  up  of  the  field  of  English  history;  he  realized  the 
value  of  the  mass  of  material  that  had  long  been  'shut  up  in  the  Latin 

"/6iV.  Ill,  p.  194. 
'^Ibid.  Ill,  pp.  161-205. 

29/W(/.   Ill,  pp.   206-8. 


110  THOMAS  WAKTON  [HO 

narratives  of  the  moukish  annalists,'  and  placed  the  Mirror  for  Magis- 
trates near  the  beginning  of  that  literary  movement  whieh  produced 
Drayton's  Hvrokal  Episths  and  Warner's  Albion's  England  and  culmi- 
nated in  Shakespeare's  historical  plays.  He  did  not  consider  the  Mirror 
for  Magistrates  tlie  source  of  the  others,  but  simply  the  first  'poetical 
use  of  tile  P^nglish  chronicles.'^" 

Warton  could  not  leave  the  discussion  of  the  English  renaissance 
without  at  least  mentioiung  that  it  was  not  wholly  poetical,  but  that  the 
'cultivation  of  an  English  [prose]  style  began  to  be  now  regarded,'" 
and  that  the  inevitable  result  was  the  rise  of  conscious  and  deliberate 
literary  criticism.  And  it  is  characteristic  that  he  should  have  traced 
the  development  of  English  prose  to  Ascham's  desire  to  show  'how  a 
subject  might  be  treated  with  grace  and  propriety  in  English  as  well  as 
in  Latin, '^'  and  that  he  should  have  compared  the  rise  of  criticism  in 
England  with  its  earlier  development  in  France  and  Italy,  with  which  he 
was  really  familiar.  It  is  at  the  same  time  indicative  of  his  estimation 
of  the  function  of  criticism  that  he  should  have  feared  that,  in  the 
absence  of  critical  treatises,  while  writers  were  entirely  unhampered 
hy  canons  of  taste  or  rules  of  correct  composition  and  'every  man 
indulged  his  own  capriciousuess  of  invention',  although  poetry  gained 
in  variety  and  flexibility,  there  was  danger  that  'selection  and  discrimi- 
nation' be  'often  overlooked,'  that  sublimity  be  mingled  with  triviality, 
and  that  liberty  become  license."- 

Iii  concluding  the  third  volume  with  a  recapitulation  of  the  tenden- 
cies that  dominated  'the  golden  age  of  English  poetry,'  Warton  showed 
his  just  estimation  of  the  contribution  from  each  source,  and  the  modifi- 
cation each  underwent  in  becoming  part  of  the  complex  whole.  This 
summary  is  the  more  significant  because  it  shows  distinctly  what  he 
considered  the  essentials  of  such  an  age,  and  therefore  implies  his 
explanation  of  the  lack  of  poetry  in  his  own  day.  Having  always 
recognized  imagination  as  a  first  reqiiisite  of  pure  poetry,  and  realizing, 
as  his  pseudo-classical  contemporaries  did  not,  that  the  romantic  fictions 
of  the  middle  ages  made  as  powerful  an  appeal  to  the  imagination  and 
feelings  as  the  traditions  of  classical  antiquity,  and  perceiving  too  that 
they  are  not  necessarily  incompatibly,  he  could  show  that  it  was  an 
inestimable  gain  to  the  Elizabethan  age  that  it  combined  the  beauties 
of  both,  that  poetry  reached  its  highest  development  in  England  before 
reason  and  science  had  so  far  advanced  upon  art  that  intellectual  quali- 
ties prevailed  over  imaginative.    The  nice  balance  between  two  intoler- 

•■"'/fiirf.  Ill,  pp.  259-282. 
^'Ibid.  Ill,  pp.  329-354. 
^-IbiJ.  Ill,  p.  499. 


Ill]  HISTORY    OP    ENGLISH    POETRY,    VOL.    Ill  HI 

able  extremes — undisciplined  imagination  and  cold  reason — which  has 
been  but  rarely  readied,  has  seldom  been  more  clearly  conceived  than 
by  Warton,  and  is  aptly  described  in  the  closing  words  of  his  description 
of  the  great  poetic  age,  'when  genius  was  rather  directed  than  governed 
by  judgement,  and  when  taste  and  learning  had  so  far  only  disciplined 
imagination,  as  to  suffer  its  excesses  to  pass  without  censure  or  controul, 
for  the  sake  of  the  beauties  to  which  they  were  allied. '^^ 

The  fourth  volume,  which  was  to  have  completed  the  history, 
although  repeatedly  promised,''^  was  never  finished.  Yet  it  was  never 
wholly  abandoned,  and  at  the  time  of  Warton 's  death  it  was  supposed 
that  it  could  be  completed  by  his  brother  Joseph  from  the  materials 
that  Thomas  had  collected.  The  printer,  Daniel  Prince,  sent  the  eleven 
sheets,  eighty-eight  pages,  which  he  had  already  printed  of  the  fourth 
volume,  to  Dr.  Warton,  who  had  collected  all  his  brother's  papers  and 
taken  them  to  Winchester  with  the  expectation  of  putting  them  in  order 
and  finishing  the  volume.  Unfortunately,  however,  the  historian  had 
never  made  very  careful  notes,  as  a  result  of  his  habit  of  writing  directly 
for  the  press  after  he  had  assembled  all  his  material,  trusting  much,  no 
doubt,  to  his  memory.  There  was  therefore  probably  little  manuscript 
that  could  be  used  by  another.  And  his  brother  increased  the  confusion 
of  the  material  by  cramming  the  papers  all  together  in  disorder.''^ 
Joseph  made  efforts  to  complete  the  work,^*  but,  not  being  imbued  with 
equal  enthusiasm  for  the  subject  nor  endowed  with  equal  ability — he 
complained  that  the  ground  left  for  him  to  go  over  was  'so  beaten'! — 
the  task  proved  too  much  for  him. 

The  reasons  why  Warton  never  finished  the  history  are  not  hard 
to  find.    About  the  time  the  third  volume  was  finished,  he  must  have 

33/fr,-rf.  Ill,  p.  501. 

^*Letter  to  Price,  Oct.  13,  1781.  'I  have  lately  been  working  hard;  have  made 
some  progress  in  my  fourth  volume.'    Mant,  I,  p.  Ixxviii. 

Prince  to  Gough,  Aug.  4,  1783.  'Mr.  Warton's  'History  of  English  Poetry' 
will  be  at  press  again  at  Michaelmass  next.'     Nichols :  Lit.  Anec.  Ill,  p.  696. 

In  the  edition  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems,  1785,  the  speedy  publication  of  the 
fourth  volume  was  announced. 

"^Ibid.  p.  702. 

^'Joseph  Warton  to  Hayley,  March  12,  1792.  'At  any  leisure  I  get  busied  in 
finishing  the  last  volume  of  Mr.  Warton's  History  of  English  Poetry,  which  I  have 
engaged  to  do — for  the  booksellers  are  clamorous  to  have  the  book  finished  (tho' 
the  ground  I  am  to  go  over  is  so  beaten)  that  it  may  be  a  complete  work.'  WooU, 
p.  404. 

Prince  insinuates  that  Joseph  had  the  greater  incentive  to  finish  the  work 
since  a  large  part  of  the  copy-money  had  been  withheld  until  it  should  be  finished, 
and  he  was  already  disappointed  that  his  brother  had  left  him  no  money.  Nichols : 
Lit.  Anec.  Ill,  pp.  702-3. 


112  THOMAS  W.VBTON  [112 

begun  his  edition  of  Milton's  Minor  Poems,  the  final  expression  of  a  life- 
long attaehinciit  to  ]Milton,  and  in  the  same  year  that  it  was  published, 
he  was  made  poet  laureate  and  Camden  Professor  of  History  at  Oxford, 
which  honours,  though  they  exacted  no  arduous  duties,  helped  to  dis- 
tract his  energy  from  the  history.  Very  likely  too  the  fact  that  in  an 
earlier  work  he  had  already  discussed  Spenser,  who  would  have  made  a 
large  part  in  the  fourth  volume,  made  him  the  more  willing  to 
turn  to  a,  for  him,  new  field.  Therefore,  just  as  he  had  failed  to 
carry  every  other  of  his  works  to  the  point  of  completion  originally 
planned,  without  ever  quite  abandoning  the  history,  he  probably  never 
took  it  up  with  any  resolute  intention  of  completing  it,  after  the  publi- 
cation of  the  third  volume. 

Some  of  his  contemporaries  seem,  however,  to  have  found  a  more 
specific  and  less  worthy  reason  for  its  virtual  abandonment.  Dr.  Percy 
and  his  friend  Thomas  Caldecott,  a  fellow  of  New  College  who  knew 
Warton  personally,  seem  to  have  entertained  the  notion  that  he  was 
influenced  by  the  scurrilous  attack  of  the  antiquary  Ritson'^  to  relin- 
quish his  plan.  Warton 's  biographer,  however,  asserts  on  the  authority 
of  'an  intimate  friend  of  Mr.  Warton'  that  he  'neither  allowed  the 
justne.ss,  nor  felt,  though  he  might  lament,  the  keenness  of  the  censure.'^' 
The  following  letter  to  George  Steevens  shows  that  he  was  disposed  to 
treat  the  attack  with  contemptuous  silence,  although  he  felt  he  could 
answer  most  of  the  objections. 

Dear  Sir 

I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  your  Information  about  the  Author  of  the 
quarto  Pamphlet''  written  against  me  in  two  Letters,  the  first  dated  at  Emmanuel 
College,  the  second  at  Hampstead.  What  a  universal  Caviller  and  Corrector !  But 
surely,  whatever  may  be  done  with  a  previous  and  separate  piece  of  criticism,  no 
bookseller  will  be  found  absurd  enough  to  contract  for  a  new  edition  of  Shakespeare 

"■Percy  to  Caldecott,  Aug.  17,  1803.  'I  certainly  think  with  you,  that  the  per- 
sonal abuse  of  poor  mad  Ritson  was  the  highest  honour  he  could  do  me,  and  can 
only  regret  that  it  deprived  us  of  the  ingenious  labours  of  "honest  Tom  Warton." 
I  assure  you  it  would  have  had  no  such  influence  on  me.'  Nichols :  Lit.  Illus. 
VIII,  pp.  372-3. 

A  similar  notion  seems  to  have  inspired  a  curious  and  somewhat  obscure 
caricature  printed  in  London  in  1805,  which  is  thus  described  by  Andrew  Caldwell 
in  a  letter  to  Percy :  Ritson  'is  surrounded  with  carrots  and  cabbages,  and  on  the 
ground  lies  the  Rcliques.  A  print  of  poor  Warton,  with  a  knife  and  fork  stuck 
in  his  belly;  the  meaning  of  this  I  do  not  understand.'    Ibid.  VIII,  p.  62. 

''Mant,  p.  Ixviii.  See  also  Thomas  Park's  Advertisement  of  his  edition  of 
Ritson's  English  Songs.    London,  1813. 

"Ritson:  Observations  on  the  three  first  volumes  of  the  History  of  English 
Poetry  in  a  familiar  tetter  to  the  author,  1782. 


113]  HISTORY    OF    ENGLISH    POETRY,    VOL.    UI  113 

after  your's.*"  I  could  disprove  most  of  his  objections  were  it  a  matter  of  any 
Consequence.  To  speak  to  one  here,  Dr.  Farmer  suggested  to  me  the  Calcula- 
tion concerning  the  Gesta  Alexandri  printed  by  Corsellis,  showing  that  the  (MS. 
burnt)  was  completed  at  Priss  on  a  Sunday.''!  j  (MS.  burnt)  told  the  Pamphlef^ 
makes  some  way  a  C(MS.  burnt)ge,  under  the  Auspices  of  Dr.  Glyn(-)e.  But  it 
(MS.  burnt)  is  too  heavy  to  move  much.  Wh(MS.  burnt)  ay,  Dean  Milles*^  was 
here  in  (MS.  burnt),  for  a  week,  I  found  on  my  Table  on  my  Return  hither,  a 
present  of  Ritson's  Quarto  'with  Compliments  from  the  .Author.'  We  will  have 
your  new  Rowley  .Anecdotes  when  we  meet  in  town  after  Xmas. 

I  am,  Dear  Sir,  your  most  faithful  humble  servant, 
T.  Warton. 
Oxon.  Nov.  8,  1782." 

Later  he  was  drawn  into  the  controversy  that  was  waged  in  the  Gentle- 
man's Magazine,  and  probably  even  contributed  a  letter  himself.*' 


^'In  April,  1783,  Steevens  wrote  to  Warton,  'No  less  than  six  editions  of 
Shakespear  (including  Capell's  Notes,  with  Collins'  prolegomena)  are  now  in  the 
mash-tub.'  WooU,  p.  398.  Ritson  projected  an  edition,  but  printed  only  a  few 
sheets  in  1787.    See  Appendix  to  Remarks  Critical  and  Illustrative,  1783. 

■•iRitson :     Observations,  etc.,  p.  15,  and  Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  8,  note  h. 

*-An  Essay  ,on  the  Evidence  .  .  .  relating  to  the  Poems  attributed  to  Rowley. 
...  by  Matthias,  1783. 

*^Editor  of  the  Rowley  poems,  1782,  and  defender  of  their  antiquity. 

"Bodleian  MSS.    Montagu  D.  2  fol.  48. 

*=Nov.  3,  1782.    Lit.  Illus.  IV,  p.  739.    See  also  Lit.  Anec.  VI,  p.  182. 


CHAPTER   VIII 

Critical  Reception  op  the  History  of  English  Poetry 

It  is  interesting  to  see  how  a  work,  addressed  to  two  classes  of 
readers,  the  man  of  taste  and  the  antiquary,  and  written  by  a  man  who 
belonged  strictly  to  neither,  was  received  by  typical  members  of  each. 
Both  classes  of  contemporary  readers,  as  wiU  be  expected,  were  out  of 
sj-mpathy  with  Warton  's  enthusiasm  for  his  subject  and  failed  to  appre- 
ciate las  valuable  new  methods.  Horace  Walpole,  who  posed  as  an 
antiquary,  but  whose  bits  of  information  on  ancient  matters  were  de- 
cidedly amateurish  compared  with  the  strict  studies  and  exact  knowledge 
of  the  serious  antiquarians,  hailed  the  first  volume  of  Warton 's  history 
with  delight:  'It  seems  delightfully  full  of  things  I  love;'^  but  his 
enthusiasm  M-as  scarcely  sufficient  to  survive  the  reading  of  it.  He 
granted  that  the  particulars  were  entertaining,  but  maintained  that  the 
amassing  of  'all  the  parts  and  learning  of  four  centuries'  simply  pro- 
duced tlie  impression  'that  those  four  ages  had  no  parts  or  learning  at 
all.  There  is  not  a  gleam  of  poetry  in  their  compositions  between  the 
Scalds  and  Chaucer.'^  The  result,  so  unsatisfactory  to  a  man  with 
Walpole 's  Augustan  taste  in  poetry,  he  was  inclined  to  blame,  quite 
unjustly,  upon  the  author's  plan  rather  than  upon  his  own  lack  of 
interest  in  the  earlier  history  of  poetrj'.  'In  short,'  he  wrote  to  Mason, 
'it  may  be  the  genealogy  of  versification  with  all  its  intermarriages  and 
anecdotes  of  the  family;  but  Gray's  and  your  plan  might  stiU  be 
executed.  I  am  sorry  Mr.  Warton  has  contracted  such  an  affection  for 
his  materials,  that  he  seems  almost  to  think  that  not  only  Pope  but 
Drj^den  himself  have  added  few  beauties  to  Chaucer."' 

The  second  volume  wearied  him  still  more.  'I  have  very  near 
finished  Warton,'  he  wrote,  'but,  antiquary  as  I  am,  it  was  a  tough 
achievement.  He  has  dipped  into  an  incredible  ocean  of  dry  and  obso- 
lete authors  of  the  dark  ages,  and  has  brought  up  more  rubbish  than 
riches,  but  the  latter  chapters,  especially  on  the  progress  and  revival 
of  the  theatre,  are  more  entertaining;  however  it  is  very  fatiguing  to 
wade  through  the  muddy  poetry  of  three  or  four  centuries  that  had 
never  a  poet.'*  With  the  third  volume  Walpole 's  antiquarian  pose 
dropped  away  completely.     If  Mr.  Warton  was  going  to  consider  the 

^Letter  to  Mason,  March  23,  1774.    Walpole's  Letters,  Ed.  cit.,  VIII,  p.  432. 
^Letter  to  Mason,  April  7,  1774.    Ibid.,  p.  440, 
^Ibid. 

^Letter  to  Mason,  April  18,  1778.    Ibid.  X,  pp.  222-23. 

114 


115]  CRITICAL     RECEPTION  115 

Nut  Brown  Maid  better  than  Prior's  imitation,  he  must  feel  alarmed  at 
the  drift  of  criticism.  He  expressed  his  contempt  for  Warton's  taste 
in  admiring  such  verse  and  his  judgment  in  devoting  so  much  attention 
to  those  barren  centuries  in  English  literary  liistory  in  no  mild  terms. 
But  his  criticism  is  a  boomerang  which  returns  upon  his  own  inability 
to  appreciate  the  merits  of  Warton's  history  without  having  discovered 
the  faults  which  undoubtedly  do  exist.  'This,'  he  said,  'is  the  third 
immense  history  of  the  life  of  poetry,  and  still  poetry  is  not  yet  born, 
for  Spenser  will  not  appear  till  the  fourth  tome.  I  perceive  it  is  the 
certain  fate  of  an  antiquary  to  become  an  old  fool.'°  Mason,  in  the 
same  spirit,  deplored  Warton's  'antiquarian  mud,'  and  thought  that  the 
best  that  was  to  be  hoped  for  the  history  was  that  a  selection  of  anec- 
dotes might  be  made  from  it.' 

From  the  other  class  of  readers  came  the  savage  attacks  of  the  anti- 
quarian Ritson,  who,  approaching  Warton's  work  from  the  opposite  direc- 
tion, failed  as  completely  as  tlie  men  of  taste  to  point  out  its  chief  faults 
and  to  appreciate  its  timely  as  well  as  enduring  value.  Ritson  was 
'merelj'  an  antiquarian'  and  a  very  bad-tempered  one:  he  had  no  taste 
for  poetry,  no  interest  in  literary  criticism;  he  combined,  however,  a 
genuine  passion  for  exact  research  with  an  unscholarly  acerbity  of 
temper  and  virulence  of  abuse.  His  Observations  on  the  three  first 
volumes  of  the  IHstor;/  of  English  Poetry.  In  a  familiar  letter  to  the' 
author,  published  anonjTnously  in  1782,  with  characteristic  affrontery 
was  printed  'in  the  size  of  Mr.  Wartons  History'  as  a  'useful 
Appendix'  to  'that  celebrated  work.'  After  an  introduction  full  of 
mock  deference  and  covert  contempt,  Ritson  indicated  tlie  line  of  his 
attack.  'Whether  you  have  gratifyed  "the  reader  of  taste,"  by  your 
exertions  on  this  subject,  I  know  not ;  but  of  this  I  am  confident,  that 
"the  anti(iuarian"  wiU  have  greater  reason  to  be  dissatisfyed  with 
being  perplexed  or  misled,  than  to  thank  you  for  having  engaged  in  a 
task  for  which  it  will  appear  you  have  been  so  little  qualifyed." 

Ritson 's  accurate  antiquarian  knowledge,  though  inspired  by  the 
most  execrable  of  bad  tempers,  was  able  to  collect  only  one  hundred 
charges  of  varj'ing  degrees  of  seriousness  and  importance  against  War- 
ton's  historj',  certainly  a  very  small  number  to  be  gleaned  from  three 
quarto  volumes,  1761  pages  in  all.  The  specific  points  criticized  range 
from  an  attack  on  Warton's  excuse  for  neglecting  the  Anglo-Saxon 
period — tliat  it  was  not  connected  with  the  nature  and  purpose  of  his 

^Letter  to  Mason,  March  9,  1781.    Ibid,  XI,  p.  412. 

'Letter  to  Walpole,  March  20,  1781.    Quoted  from  Moulton's  Library  of  Liter- 
ery  Criticism,  1910,  IV,  p.  73. 
''Observations,  etc.,  p.  (3). 


116  THOMAS  WARTON  [116 

undertaking  (a  fault  that  Warton  obviously  felt  and  that  Ritson  un- 
fairy  exaggerated  by  lifting  from  its  context) — to  inaccuracy  in  dates 
of  manuscripts,  inexact  quotations,  incorrect  glosses,  and,  most  serious 
of  all,  the  charge  of  plagiarism.  The  accusation  that  Warton  was  not 
always  accurate  may  be  admitted,  though  ^vith  the  qualification  that 
his  inaccuracy  is  generally  greatly  overestimated  and  was  mueli  more 
frequently  due  to  the  inevitable  impossibility  of  ascertaining  exactly 
every  date  and  meaning  and  manuscript  reading  in  so  huge  a  work  and 
in  the  infancy  of  the  study  of  those  subjects  than  to  any  culpable  lack  of 
care  on  the  hitsorian's  part. 

The  charge  of  plagiarizing  is  more  serious,  and,  since  greater  heed 
is  usually  given  to  such  an  accusation  than  to  the  ill-nature  that  inspired 
it  or  to  the  possibility  of  oversight  in  transcribing  a  large  number  of 
references,  "Warton  seems  to  need  a  more  extended  defense  at  this  point. 
Ritson  made  two  explicit  charges  of  this  sort  and  indulged  in  a  good 
deal  of  innuendo.  It  must  be  admitted  that  three  notes  to  Warton 'a 
text  of  Douglas's  Description  of  May^  correspond  to  those  of  Fawkes's 
edition,  published  in  1752,  and  the  conclusion  that  Fawkes  was  the 
source  of  Warton 's  notes  is  pretty  obvious,  but  that  scarcely  justifies 
Ritson 's  acrimonious  'each  of  These  notes,  as  you  [Warton]  well 
know,  is  Stolen  verbatum  from  the  late  Mr.  Fawkeses  Imitation 
of  Douglas.'"  And  again,  when  Warton  had  apparentlj-  taken  an  expla- 
nation of  the  Hundred  Merry  Tales,  the  supposed  source  of  Beatrice's 
wit  in  Much  Ado  about  Nothing,  as  the  Cent  Nouvclles  Nouvelles,  from 
Steevens's  edition  of  Shakespeare,  Ritson 's  'I  found  that,  according  to 
your  usual  and  laudable  custom,  you  had  been  pecking  and  pilfering 
from  ilr.  Steevenses  notes  upon  it,'  goes  beyond  the  deserts  of  the  case. 
It  is  easily  conceivable  that  references  should  have  been  omitted  by 
oversight  or  accidental  loss.  The  wonder  is  that  there  are  not  many 
more  such  accidental  omissions.  And  Warton 's  evident  care  to  quote 
the  exact  references  to  his  sources  in  his  foot-notes  makes  deliberate 
dishonesty  extremely  unlikely. 

Ritson 's  temper  is  even  uglier  when  he  charges  Warton  with  copy- 
ing a  poem  from  Percy's  ballads  and  then  asserting  in  the  notes  that 
he  had  transcribed  it  from  the  original  in  the  British  Museum  and 
written  the  explanations  before  he  knew  that  it  was  printed  in  Percy's 
collection,  giving  colour  to  the  accusation  by  the  fact  that  the  same 
mistakes — including  the  omission  of  a  stanza — occur  in  both  transcripts.^" 
We  have  here  a  question  of  Warton 's  word  against  Ritson  "s,  with  a 

'^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  pp.  284,  285,  and  286,  notes. 
^Observations,  p.  (24). 
^"Ibid.  p.  (5-6). 


117]  CRITICAL    RECEPTION  117 

considerable  weight  of  bad  temper  on  one  side  and  a  simple  and 
common  explanation,  such  as  is  usually  accepted  at  its  face  value,  on 
the  other,  and  with  the  possibility  of  a  perfectly  plausible  explanation 
that  both  Percy  and  Warton  received  their  transcripts  from  a  common 
copyist." 

After  his  assembly  of  one  hundred  and  sixteen  mostly  petty  errors 
in  Warton 's  history,  Ritson  concluded  with  an  insulting  attack  upon  the 
whole,  unworthy  of  a  scholar  of  Ritsou's  ability  and,  it  would  seem,  so 
far  overshooting  the  mark  as  to  destroy  its  intended  effect.  'If  your 
collections  had  been  authentic,  though  of  theirselves  no  history,  nor 
capable,  in  your  hands,  of  becoming  one,  they  might  at  least  have  been 
useful  to  some  subsequent  writer  better  qualifyed  for  the  purpose.  But 
we  see  (as  has  been  here  sufficiently  proved)  you  are  not  to  be  relyed 
on  in  a  single  instance  [a  generalization  for  which  he  at  least  had  given 
slight  basis]  ;  the  work  being  a  continued  tissue  of  falsehood  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  Suffer  me,  as  a  friend, — to  your  subject,  at  least, — to 
recommend'  that  you  revise  the  whole,  'That  the  work  may  not  remain 
a  monument  of  disgrace  to  yourself  and  your  country. "- 

Although  Mant  insisted  upon  Warton 's  contempt  of  this  attack," 
his  friends  resented  it  and  engaged  in  a  fierce  war  of  words  with  Ritson 
in  which  they  showed  abilitj-  equal  to  Ritson 's  without  his  spleen. 
Ritson  seems  never  to  have  abated  his  abuse  of  Warton,'*  although  after 
his  death  he  expressed  an  intention  to  'treat  his  ashes  with  the  rever- 
ence I  ought  possibl}-  to  have  bestowed  on  his  person ; '  and  a  regret  that 
he  had  been  'introduced,  not  always  in  the  most  serious  or  respectful 
manner,'  in  a  recently  written  work." 

^'It  is.  of  course,  too  much  to  suppose  that  Warton  personally  made  all  the 
research  necessary  for  so  huge  a  work  unassisted  and  in  the  comparatively  short 
time  he  must  have  given  to  the  work,  and  that  not  wholly  free  from  other  inter- 
ests. His  letters  indicate  that  he  received  much  assistance  from  obliging  friends, 
e.g.  letter  to  Price,  .'\ugust  i8,  1780  (Mant,  p.  Ixxviii)  and  to  Percy,  February  22, 
1776,  supra. 

^-Observations,  p.  (48). 

•■^Op.  cit.  I,  p.  Ixviii. 

'^Mant  supposed  his  strictures  somewhat  softened  in  the  preface  to  Minot's 
Poems  (.-Vnon.  1795)  but  the  references  to  Warton  there  seem  to  me  no  less  hostile, 
though  perhaps  somewhat  thinly  veiled  by  irony.  'Its  author,'  he  says  of  the 
historian,  'confident  in  great  and  splendid  abilities,  would  seem  to  have  disdained 
the  too  servile  task  of  cultivating  the  acquaintance  of  ancient  dialect  or  phraseology, 
and  to  have  contented  himself  with  publishing,  and  occasionally  attempting  to  ex- 
plain, what,  it  must  be  evident,  he  did  not  himself  understand.'     Pref.  ed.  cit.,  p.  ix. 

'^Letter  to  Walker,  June  25,  1790.  Ritson's  Letters,  ed.  Nicolas,  London, 
1833.  I,  p.  169.  See  also  Thomas  Park's  Advertisement  to  his  edition  of  Ritson's 
Englisli  Songs,  London,  1813. 


118  THOMAS  WARTON  [118 

Although  it  may  appear  from  the  opinions  just  quoted  that  Warton 
faih'd  to  i)h'a.s(>  both  classes  of  readers  to  wlioni  he  had  appealed  in  his 
preface, — that  he  was  not  entertaining  enough  for  the  man  of  taste  nor 
accurate  enough  for  the  antiquary, — it  must  not  be  assumed  that  the 
work  faili-d  to  have  evi-n  an  innnediate  sueeess.'"  Besides  the  caution 
that  WaIi)ole  was  too  much  an  Augustan  in  his  taste  for  poetry  and 
Sitson  too  ill-tempered  in  his  hostility  toward  every  other  antiquary  to 
be  a  very  competent  judge  of  Warton 's  liistory,  it  is  even  more  impor- 
tant to  recognize  that  Warton  had  a  higher  ideal  than  simply  to  please 
either  the  man  of  taste,  or  the  antiquary,  or  both.  He  aspired  to  write 
the  history  of  English  poetry,  and  he  took  a  broader  and  more  compre- 
hensive and  at  the  same  time  more  single  view  of  his  subject  than  either 
type  of  i-eader  was  able  to  comprehend.  That  he  aspired  to  be,  and 
was,  something  more  than  the  mere  man  of  taste  is  obvious ;  that  he 
was  something  more  than  a  mere  antiquary  has  not  always  been  so 
fully  recognized.  The  distinction  is  one  he  recognized  clearly  himself,'^ 
and  there  were  some  of  his  contemporaries  who  realized  that  in  this 
work  he  combined  the  entluisiasm  of  a  poet,  the  discrimination  of  a 
critic,  the  research  of  an  antiquar_y,  the  broad  view  of  an  historian,  and 
the  genuine  human  interest  of  a  teacher,  and  that  it  was  this  rich  blend- 
ing of  qualities  that  made  his  history  transcend  its  faults  and  become 
a  'classic'"  upon  its  first  appearance.  'This  elegant  writer,'  said  the 
reviewer  for  the  Gentleman's  Magazine,  'already  well  known  to  the 
learned  world  as  a  poet,  a  critic,  and  an  antiquarian,  opposite  as  those 
characters  seem  to  be,  has  here  in  some  measure  united  them  all.'"*  The 
Monthly  Review  not  only  described  the  history  as  a  'capital  work,  .... 
replete  with  entertainment  and  erudition,'-"  but  even  showed  some 
appreciation  of  its  less  obvious  merits:  'It  is  not  Mr.  Warton 's  prin- 
cipal merit,  that  he  investigates  his  subject  with  the  patience  of  an 
antiquary  and  the  acuteness  of  a  critic ;  from  his  accurate  delineation  of 
character,  it  is  evident,  that  he  has  inspected  the  manners  of  mankind 
with  the  penetrating  eye  of  a  philosopher.'-'  Gibbon  appre- 
ciated the  value  of  his  study  of  'the  progress  of  romance,  and  the  state 

'"Mam  said  that  he  had  heard  that  the  copyright  was  sold  for  35o£,  and  that 
'such  was  the  confidence  of  the  proprietors  in  the  sale  of  it,  that  tlie  impression 
consisted  of  1250  copies.'    Op.  cit.,  p.  hii. 

"He  dismissed  Harding's  Chronicle  as  "ahnost  beneath  criticism,  and  lit  only 
for  the  attention  of  an  antiquary.'     Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  127. 

'"C.  K.  Adams:    A  Manual  of  Historical  Literature,  1882,  p.  501. 

■"17-4.  Vol.  XLIV,  p.  370. 

-■"1774.  Vol.  50,  p.  297. 

='1782,  Vol.  66,  p.  162. 


119]  CRITICAL     RECEPTION  119 

of  learning,  in  the  middle  ages,'  which  he  said  were  illustrated  'with 
the  taste  of  a  poet,  and  the  minute  diligence  of  an  antiquarian. '-- 

Sir  Walter  Scott,  who  combined  some  qualities  of  both  the  man  of 
taste  and  the  antiquary  with  a  creative  imagination  that  both  they  and 
Warton  lacked,  showed  in  his  appreciation  of  the  spirit  of  the  past  for 
the  sake  of  its  share  in  the  reality  of  the  present,-'' — a  departure  from 
the  earlier  study  of  the  past  for  its  own  sake  which  marked  the  anti- 
quary,— a  romanticism  that  seems  to  emanate  from  Warton 's  History 
of  English  Poetry  and  its  vitalizatiou  of  the  life  of  the  middle  ages.-'' 
Scott's  criticism  of  Warton 's  history  is  pretty  just,  except  that  he  could 
not,  of  course,  quite  appreciate  Warton 's  contribution  in  the  way  of 
inaugurating  modern  methods  of  criticism.  After  regretting  the  neg- 
lect of  system  which  he  said  resulted  from  the  writer's  too  great  interest 
in  the  fascinating  details  of  his  subject,  he  concluded,  'Accordingly, 
Warton "s  "'History  of  English  Poetry"  has  remained,  and  will  always 
remain,  an  immense  common-place  book  of  memoirs  to  serve  for  such 
an  history.  No  antiquary  can  open  it,  without  drawing  information 
from  a  mine  which,  though  dark,  is  inexhaustible  in  its  treasures ;  nor 
will  he  who  reads  merely  for  amusement  ever  shut  it  for  lack  of  attain- 
ing his  end ;  while  both  may  probably  regret  the  desultory  excursions 
of  an  author,  who  wanted  only  system,  and  a  more  rigid  attention  to 
minute  accuracy,  to  have  perfected  the  great  task  he  has  left  incom- 
plete.'-'^ 

"History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  Philadelphia  1871, 
6  vols.     Ill,  p.  624. 

-^C.  H.  Herford,  in  The  Age  of  Wordsworth,  London,  1909,  distinguishes  two 
types  of  romantic  mediaevalism,  'the  one  pursuing  the  image  of  the  past  as  a 
refuge  from  reality,  the  other  as  portion  of  it;  the  mediaevalism  of  Tieck  and  the 
mediaevalism  of  Scott.'  (Introd.  x.xiv,  note.)  He  might  have  added  the  mediae- 
valism from  which  they  both  sprang,  which  pursued  the  past  for  its  own  sake 
(and  was  not  properly  romantic),  the  mediaevalism  of  the  antiquary,  of  Thomas 
Hearne. 

-■'There  were  of  course  other  large  factors  in  Scott's  romanticism  and  there 
was  little  conscious  debt  to  Warton.  But  there  is  unquestionably  a  close  resem- 
blance between  the  two  men  and  in  other  respects  than  the  one  just  mentioned, 
the  similarity  of  their  approach  to  the  past,  their  enthusiastic  love  of  the  middle 
ages,  combined  with  and  even  depending  upon  a  firm  grasp  on  reality.  Their 
qualities  differ  more  in  degree  than  in  kind.  Warton  and  Scott  have  similar 
antiquarian  interests — more  human  than  scholarly  perhaps — similar  love  for  the 
architectural  art  of  the  past,  as  well  as  for  the  life  whose  monument  it  is.  They 
had  also  common  unromantic  qualities :  strong  common  sense,  geniality  of  temper 
and  love  of  sociability,  tremendous  energy,  and  conservatism  in  politics,  religion 
and  morality. 

-'Scott:  Critical  and  Miscellaneous  Essays,  1804.  I,  p.  11.  Quoted  from 
Moulton's  Library  of  Literary  Criticism,  IV,  p.  73. 


120  THOMAS  WARTON  [120 

More  adequate  realization  of  the  value  of  Warton's  history  came 
only  as  modern  scholarly  research  pursued  the  path  which  he  had  first 
pointed  out,  and  attained  thereby  results  which  over-topped  his  only 
because  built  upon  them.  But  many  of  his  successors  have  shown  the 
common  disposition  to  'scorn  the  base  degrees  by  which  they  did  ascend', 
and  have  looked  upon  but  one  side  of  the  matter,  comparing  Warton's 
achievement  in  any  particular  brancli  of  his  large  subject  with  their 
own  in  a  much  smaller  one.  They  forget  the  difficiUties  that  he  encoun- 
tered,— that  he  had  not  the  inspiration  of  general  interest,  that  authentic 
sources  were  almost  inaccessibli',  that  scholarly  methods  were  undefined, 
that  even  the  mechanical  aids  of  book  and  manuscript  catalogues, 
bibliographies,  and  dictionaries  were  lacking.  There  is  an  unfortunate 
tendency  to  blame  Warton  for  the  defects  of  his  age,  for  not  having 
accomplished  tlie  impossible — not  only  in  his  own  day,  but,  as  yet,  in 
ours.  Two  short  quotations  will  show  the  improved  yet  still  incomplete 
appreciation  of  the  merits  of  the  history.  'He  saw,  by  anticipation, 
some  of  the  fruits  which  the  comparative  method  might  be  made  to 
yield ;  and,  as  a  consequence,  although  he  essayed  a  task  too  large  for 
any  man,-"  and  achieved  what  is  doubtless  an  ill-arranged  and  ill-pro- 
portioned fragment,  yet  he  left  the  impress  of  his  independent  thought 
and  of  his  vigorous  grasp  upon  our  literature,  and  traced  the  lines  upon 
which  its  history  must  be  written.'-'  'But  Warton's  learning  was  wide, 
if  not  exact;  and  it  was  not  dry  learning,  but  quickened  by  the  spirit 
of  a  genuine  man  of  letters.  Therefore,  in  spite  of  its  obsoleteness  in 
matters  of  fact,  his  history  remains  readable,  as  a  body  of  descriptive 
criticism,  or  a  continuous  literary  essay.'"* 

The  tendency  just  mentioned  of  many  modern  critics  to  find  fault 
W'ith  Warton 's  history  on  the  score  of  lack  of  system  and  inaccuracies  in 
detail  is  criticism  beside  the  point.  Even  granting  that  their  charges 
be  true, — they  are  certainly  exaggerated, — they  detract  little  from  the 
value  of  the  history  in  its  own  day,  or  its  importance  in  ours.  Ilazlitt 
reached  the  height  of  folly  in  this  sort  of  criticism  when  he  said,  'It 
was  his  rare  good  fortune  to  be  enabled  to  take  possession  of  the  field 
at  a  period  when  there  was  absolutely  no  competitor  in  sight,'-'  and 
charged  him  with  indolence,  carelessness  and  ignorance, — criticism 
which  reflects  more  upon  the  critic  than  upon  his  subject.  Its  author 
failed  to  take  any  account  of  Warton's  milieu.     Looked  at  with  the 

=°For  which  he  had  examples  enough  in  the  encyclopedic  works  of  his  century. 
='Craik :     English  Prose,  1906.     Introduction,  IV,  p.  8. 

2'Beers:     A  History  of  English  Romatiticisin  in  the  Eighteenth  Century,  T910, 
p.  205. 

^'Hazlitt's  edition  of  Warton's  History,  4  vols.    London,  i8;i.     Preface,  p.  viii. 


121]  CRITICAL    RECEPTION  121 

proper  perspective  his  indolence  becomes  tremendous  energy,  his  care- 
lessness, scrupulous  regard  for  detail,  and  his  ignorance,  astonishing 
breadth  and  accuracy  of  information  and  surprising  felicity  of  con- 
jecture. The  task  that  Warton  undertook  was  beyond  the  accomplish- 
ment of  any  other  man  in  that  age,  and  one  that  few  men  since  have 
ventured  upon,  and  the  emendations  that  many  of  the  best  scholars  (of 
this  particular  sort)  of  the  last  century  and  a  half  have  been  accumu- 
lating about  Warton 's  text  ai'e  far  less  numerous  and  important  than 
some  of  them  would  have  us  believe. 

Warton  may  be  best  defended  against  the  most  persistent  charges  of 
his  critics,  those  of  inaccuracy  and  indolence,  by  a  brief  survey  of  the 
sources  from  which  he  drew  the  materials  of  his  history  as  lie  indicated 
them  in  his  foot-notes,  showing  their  great  number,  their  wide  range, 
their  authority,  and  the  way  he  used  them.  Misleading  as  figures  may 
be,  a  few  will,  I  think,  be  illuminating  with  respect  to  the  work  before 
me.  There  are  in  the  notes  nearly  four  thousand  references  to  authori- 
ties consulted  in  the  preparation  of  the  history,  exclusive  of  glossarial 
notes,  illustrative  passages  and  cross-references  to  other  poets,  and 
bibliographical  notes  upon  the  works  under  discussion,  all  of  which  are 
very  numerous  and  of  course  entailed  a  tremendous  amount  of  work. 
Of  the  references  thus  considered  approximately  seven  hundred  are  to 
manuscript  sources  of  information,  nearly  a  thousand  to  historical  or 
critical  works,'" — more  than  fifteen  hundred  different  authorities 
consulted. 

It  is  impossible  to  give  an  adequate  idea  of  the  variety  of  books 
included  in  Warton 's  citations,  'all  such  reading  as  never  was  read' 
and  much  of  it  now  not  only  superseded  but  forgotten.  I  can  mention 
here  onlj-  a  few  of  those  most  freq\iently  referred  to  and  most  repre- 
sentative of  the  range  of  authorities  cited,  but  anyone  who  will  give  even 
a  few  minutes  to  the  study  of  the  foot-notes  in  the  first  editions  of  the 
history  will  have  a  clearer  idea  of  the  difficulties  of  the  task  and  the 
merit  of  the  accomplishment.  The  historical  sources  include  the  anti- 
quarians, literary,  historical  and  ecclesiastical,  that  abounded  in  the 
preceding  centuries,  from  Bale  and  Lelaud  to  Tanner  and  Hearne,  from 
Holinshed  and  Stowe  to  Lyttleton  and  Hume,  and  from  Fox  and  Spel- 
man  to  Strype  and  Oudin ;  they  include  glossaries  of  many  languages, 
those  of  Herbelot,  DuCange  and  Carpentier,  and  Hickes;  they  include 
histories  of  foreign  as  well  as  English  literature,  Fauchett,  Pasquier, 
Fontenelle  and  St.  Palaye,  among  many  others  for  France,  Muratori 

^"See  bibliography   of   sources.    A    summer   spent   poring   over   the   venerable 
tomes  that  Warton  used  has  increased  the  writer's  respect  for  his  thoroughness. 


122  THOMAS  WARTON  [122 

and  Crescerabeni  for  Italy,  Bartholin,  Pontoppidan,  and  Mallet  for  Den- 
mark, and  hosts  of  others  that  defy  classification." 

Very  naturally  it  is  tlie  historical  compilations  that  are  most  fre- 
quently cited,  but  always  with  a  discriminating  sense  of  their  value; 
Warton  dependeil  on  tliom  usually  for  historical  facts  merely;  his  con- 
clusions and  interpretations  were  his  own.  In  the  case  of  many  writers 
whom  he  has  quoted  frequently  he  has  left  an  opinion  of  the  author's 
work  which  shows  the  dependence  he  placed  upon  him.  The  author 
from  whose  very  numerous  editions  of  old  texts  he  quoted  most  fre- 
(juently  is  Tliomas  Hearne,  'to  whose  diligence,'  he  said,  'even  the 
poetical  antiquarian  is  much  obliged,  but  whose  conjectures  are  generally 
\vrong. '■■'-'  Leland  he  recognized  as  'one  of  the  most  classical  scholars 
of  [his]  age.'-^'  Of  "Wood,  though  he  is  frequently  quoted,  I  find  no 
further  characterization  than  a  reference  to  'his  usual  acrimony.'" 
'Bale's  narrow  prejudices,'  he  said,  'are  well  known."*''  "Warton  recog- 
nized the  limitations  of  Bale's  principal  work  while  drawing  upon  it 
for  facts  not  elsewhere  obtainable:  'This  work  ....  is  not  only  full 
of  misrepresentations  and  partialities,  arising  from  his  religious  preju- 
dices, but  of  general  inaccuracies,  proceeding  from  negligence  or  mis- 
information. Even  those  more  antient  Lives  which  he  transcribes  from 
Leland 's  commentary  on  the  same  subject,  are  often  interpolated  \^'ith 
false  facts,  and  impertinently  marked  with  a  misapplied  zeal  for  refor- 
mation."'"' The  'circumstantial  Hollingshed'  he  characterized  as  'an 
liistorian  not  often  remarkable  for  penetration,'^"  though  his  'formidable 

31  It  will  be  easier  to  enumerate  the  authors  whom  Warton  apparently  did  not 
consult,  and  who,  it  now  appears,  might  have  been  valuable,  but  whom  we  cannot 
be  certain  he  did  not  consult,  since  he  may  have  found  nothing  to  his  purpose. 
Literary  sources  that  we  might  expect  to  find  cited  but  do  not,  are  Reynolds : 
Mythomestes,  1632;  Walton:  Lives,  1740-70;  Lloyd:  Dictionarium.  1670;  Win- 
stanley:  Lives,  1687  (its  chief  source,  Philips's  Theatriiin,  is  quoted):  Blount: 
Censura,  1690,  and  De  Re  Poetica,  1694;  [Jacob]:  Poetical  Register,  1719;  and. 
most  curious  of  all,  Dryden's  critical  essays.  .-Mthough  there  are  many  references 
to  Dryden's  plays  and  poems,  there  are  only  two  minor  citations  from  the  prose, 
the  Preface  of  the  Fables  (Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  \,  p.  416),  and  Prefctce  to  the  Spanish 
Fryer  (IH,  p.  448),  and  one  general  reference  without  exact  citation  (III,  p.  443). 

^'-Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  I,  p.  87.  Hearne  is  cited  113  times,  from  different  editions 
of  old  texts. 

'^/fci'rf.  Ill,  p.  160.     Leland's  five  principal  works  are  cited  104  times. 

■'■■"/ftirf.  Ill,  p.  96.     Woods  two  works  are  cited  77  times. 

■"•Ibid.  HI,  p.  316.  'The  Puritans  never  suspected  that  they  were  greater  bigots 
than  the  papists.'     Bale  is  cited  44  times. 

""Ibid.  Ill,  p.  79. 

"Ibid.  I,  p.  232.     Holinshed's  history  is  quoted  34  times. 


123]  CRITICAL    RECEPTION  123 

columns '^^  were  full  of  minute  details.  He  expressed  his  appreciation  of 
the  work  of  'the  indefatigablj-  inquisitive  bishop  Tanner,'-^  and  of  tlie 
'manuscript  papers  of  a  diligent  collector  of  these  fugacious  anecdotes,'*" 
Coxeter.  Warton  was  extremely  gracious  iu  acknowledging  debts  to 
his  contemporaries: — 'the  late  ingenious  critic,'  Percy,*^  'Monsieur  Mal- 
let, a  very  able  and  elegant  inquirer  into  the  genius  and  antiquities  of 
the  northern  nations,'*-  Tyrwhitt,  'an  exact  and  ingenious  critic,'*^  'my 
late  very  learned,  ingenious,  and  respected  friend,  Dr.  Borlase,'**  'the 
reverend  and  learned  doctor  Farmer,'*^  and  'Mr.  Price,  the  Bodleian 
Librarian,  to  whose  friendship  this  work  is  much  indebted.'*' 

Wliile  Warton  availed  himself  of  every  accessible  source  of  infor- 
mation, he  did  not  lean  unduly  upon  later  and  more  easily  accessible 
sources.  'I  chuse,'  he  said,  passing  over  a  recent  memoir,  'to  refer  to 
original  authorities.'*"  Again,  he  blamed  himself  for  depending  upon 
later  authorities,  feeling  that  he  had  thereby  fallen  into  error:  'I  take 
this  opportunity  of  insinuating  my  suspicions,  that  I  have  too  closely 
followed  the  testimony  of  Philips,  "Wood,  and  Tanner.'**  The  large 
number  of  manuscripts  and  of  early  printed  books  which  he  quoted 
with  great  concern  for  dates  and  careful  citations  of  various  other 
editions  which  he  had  seen  or  had  found  described — he  usually  dis- 
criminates carefully  between  those  he  had  seen  and  those  he  had  not, 
frankly  admitting  at  times  that  he  must  quote  only  at  second  hand — 
bear  out  his  statement  that  he  preferred  to  refer  to  original  sources. 
His  letters  to  his  friends,  too,  are  fuU  of  echoes  of  his  quest  for  copies 
of  rare  books,  and  of  his  researches  in  book  and  manuscript  collections 
in  private  and  public  libraries. 

This  practice  of  going  to  original  manuscript  sources  is  usually 
considered  today  a  characteristic  of  modem  scholarship  and  especially 
as  the  method  by  which  modern  scholars  have  surpassed  the  superficial 
studies  of  the  eighteenth  century.*"    And  the  belief  is  in  general  correct. 

^«Ibid.  Ill,  p.  47. 

^^Ibid.  Ill,  p.  429.    Tanner  is  cited  21  times. 
*'>/6;d.  p.  433. 

*^Ibtd.  I,  Dissertation,  I,  p.  (22).     Percy  is  cited  21  times. 
"Ibid. 

*^Ibid.  Ill,  Dis.  Ill,  p.  xcii.    Tyrwhitt  is  quoted  11  times. 
**Ibid.  I,  Diss.  I,  p.  (36)  note. 
*=/6irf.  Ill,  Diss.  Ill,  p.  iv. 
lo/fcirf.  I,  Diss.  I,  p.  (8). 
"Ibid.  I,  Diss.  I,  p.  (24),  note  q. 
*^Ibid.  Ill,  p.  293,  note  c. 

*"Bisliop  Percy's  carelessness  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  his  ballad  MSS.  is 
the  stock  example  of  eighteenth  century  methods. 


124  THO?JAS  WARTOK  [124 

But  it  is  uot  often  considered  how  much  Wartoii  contributed  to  intro- 
duce and  popularize  that  method  in  liis  History  of  English  Poetry.  Not 
only  the  new  facts  and  the  possibilities  of  absolute  exactness  which  he 
revealed  in  this  way,  but  his  very  inaccuracies  and  misquotations  have 
been  a  powerful  stimulus — to  others  than  Ritson — to  the  study  of  old 
manuscripts.  And  his  calling  attention  to  the  wealth  of  material  that 
lay  beyond  the  reaeli  of  the  ordinary  reader,  and  even,  as  in  the  case 
of  the  Gowcr  Balades,  outside  the  knowledge  of  the  literary  antiquarian, 
must  have  been  extremely  important  at  a  time  when  general  attention 
was  turning  toward  the  treasures  of  the  past. 

It  cannot  be  claimed  that  the  result  that  Warton  achieved  with  all 
his  knowledge,  industry,  taste,  genius,  is  a  perfect  history  even  for  the 
period  which  it  covers.  A  history  of  English  poetry  which  will  satisfy 
the  scholar's  demand  for  just  appreciation  of  poetical  achievement,  the 
historian's  demand  that  the  progressive  development  of  poetry  shall 
be  portrayed,  and  which  shall,  withal,  be  eminentlj'  readable,  combining 
accurate  scholarship  with  literary  qualities  and  popular  interest  in  the 
best  sense, — such  a  history  of  English  poetry  remains  to  be  written. 
But  of  the  attempts  that  have  been  made,  the  first  was  not  the  least 
effective.  It  combines  in  a  remarkable  degree  scholarliness  and  general 
vnterest;  a  scholarliness  remarkably  exact  for  its  time,  and  so  accurate 
in  method  and  general  results  that  errors  in  detail  have  been  corrected 
by  following  its  own  leading;  a  general  interest  that  has  been  wonder- 
fully stimulating  to  research  in  special  divisions  of  its  field  or  in  related 
subjects,  again  in  the  direction  Warton  suggested. 

The  principal  contribution  made  by  Warton 's  history,  aside  from 
the  facts  of  literary  liistory  which  have  been  discussed  in  many  pre- 
ceding pages,  is  in  the  way  of  method.  He  first  described  the  pro- 
gressive development  of  poetry,  the  essential  unity  of  the  whole,  the 
relation  of  part  to  part  and  to  the  whole.  It  must  be  admitted  of  course 
that  in  the  disproportionate  discussion  that  is  given  to  some  aspects  of 
the  subject,  the  relation  of  part  to  whole  seems  to  have  been  lost  sight 
of.  It  is  true  that  Warton  was  unable  to  keep  strictly  to  his  subject; 
he  was  led  aside  by  his  endeavour  to  treat  every  aspect  fully  and  then 
suddeidy  recalled  by  a  sense  of  the  extent  of  his  plan ;  he  was  torn  by 
conflicting  desires  to  treat  his  subject  exliaustivelj'  and  at  the  same 
time  broadly  and  he  never  succeeded  in  reconciling  that  conflict.  Ro- 
mantic love  of  detail  over-mastered  classical  sense  of  form  but  could 
not  obliterate  completely  his  conception  of  the  unity  of  his  whole 
subject  and  the  continuity  of  its  history.  Warton 's  history  was  at  least 
and  for  the  first  time  sufficiently  full  of  the  life  of  poetry  to  vitalize 
subsequent  study  of  the  subject. 


125]  CRITICAL     RECEPTION  125 

It  is  only  necessary,  I  thiuk,  to  recall  the  fact  that  "Warton  was  the 
first  to  use  to  any  extent  not  only  the  historical  but  also  the  comparative 
method.  He  had  shown  his  clear  perception  of  the  close  relation  between 
national  literatures  in  his  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queen  twenty 
years  before  the  first  volume  of  his  history  appeared.  That  perception 
as  well  as  his  acquaintance  with  other  literatures  had  grown  during 
that  interval,  so  that  he  was  able  to  study  mediaeval  literature  with 
some  knowledge  and  understanding  of  its  essential  spirit  and  of  its 
various  modifications  and  developments  in  France  and  Italy,  at  least, 
as  well  as  in  England,  and  of  the  interrelations  between  them,  and  to 
discuss  the  renaissance  in  England  with  an  insight  such  as  none  of  his 
contemporaries  possessed.  He  did  not,  to  be  sure,  cover  any  very 
considerable  portion  of  his  field  comparatively ;  but  to  have  recognized 
the  possibilities  of  the  method,  to  have  shown  how  it  might  be  used, 
and  to  have  perceived  that  only  by  its  use  could  the  history  of  a  national 
literature  be  adequately  written, — this  was  of  incalculable  value  in  his 
day,  and  ours. 

The  great  achievement  of  Warton 's  Observations  on  the  Faerie 
Queen  was  that  it  established  Spenser's  reputation  on  a  firm  foundation 
in  criticism  as  well  as  in  poetrj'  and  inaugurated  a  new  kind  of  literary 
criticism.  The  History  of  English  Poetry  contains  a  number  of  such 
achievements.  As  they  have  been  discussed  in  detail  in  the  preceding 
pages,  it  will  be  necessary  here  only  to  review  them.  First,  of  course, 
should  be  mentioned  the  study  of  medieval  romances,  of  which,  though 
Warton 's  theory  of  origins  be  inadequate,  his  understanding  of  their 
essential  qualities  and  of  their  influence  upon  later  literature,  is  un- 
questionably penetrating.  The  studies  in  the  beginning  of  the  drama 
are  almost  equally  valuable.  The  discussion  of  Chaucer  is  comparable 
to  that  of  Spenser  in  the  earlier  work,  and  must  be  considered  as  con- 
tributing greatly  to  the  establishment  of  that  poet's  reputation.  Warton 
is  certainly  as  useful  and  valuable  a  source  for  interpretation  of 
Chaucer  as  the  more  accurate  Tyrwhitt  for  elucidation  of  textual  diflS- 
culties,  and  here  again  his  work  has  not  been  superseded  but  only 
continued.  The  studies  of  Gower,  of  Lydgate,  of  Surrey,  of  SackviUe, 
and  of  numberless  minors  are  remarkably  illuminating  in  respect  to  the 
quality  of  the  poet's  work,  his  relation  to  his  age,  and  his  contribution 
to  the  progress  of  the  whole  subject.  The  digressions  on  Dante  and  on 
the  history  of  criticism  in  France  and  Italy  have  been  spoken  of  as 
conspicuous  examples  of  comparative  study,  and  as  contributing  largely 
to  the  study  of  Italian  literature.  They  and  the  discussion  of  Scotch 
poetry  and  the  causes  of  its  difference  from  English  poetry  illustrate 
Warton 's  growing  recognition  of  the  part  plaj'ed  by  racial  characteris- 
tics and  national  temperament  in  the  formation  of  a  national  literature. 


126  THOMAS  W.VRTON  [126 

That  Warton's  knowledge  of  literature  was  not  simply  an  accumu- 
latiou  of  'cuinl)rous  and  aniorphous  learning,""  is  shown  not  oidy  in 
his  comprehension  of  the  relations  of  part  to  whole  and  of  the  continu- 
ous progress  of  poetry,  and  his  arrangement  of  his  material  in  general 
to  show  that  unity  and  continuity,  but  it  is  even  more  strikingly  proved 
by  his  ability  to  turn  liis  knowledge  to  practical  use  in  determining  the 
period  to  which  a  questionable  work  belonged  by  the  consideration  of 
the  literary  characteristics  of  that  period  and  without  any  technical 
knowledge  of  its  language.  Warton's  prompt  disposal  of  the  Rowley 
question  meets  a  practical  scholarly  test  of  the  best  sort  in  a  way  that 
reveals  a  real  mastery  of  the  field. 

Judged  by  the  same  standards  that  Warton  helped  to  teach  us  to 
apply  to  literary  history,  with  reference  to  his  inheritance  from  the 
past,  the  influence  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  and  the  inspiration 
of  his  own  genius,  Warton  stands  out  as  easily  one  of  the  most  important 
figures  of  the  eighteenth  century.  He  was  at  the  same  time  the  product 
of  his  age  and  of  his  own  genius.  From  the  study  of  the  past  he  had 
gained  a  quickening  of  the  imagination  and  a  sense  of  that  which  is 
enduring  and  constant  in  human  history  as  well  as  a  perception  of  that 
which  changes  from  age  to  age ;  as  he  belonged  to  the  eighteenth  century, 
he  had  a  strong  fund  of  common  sense,  clear  reasoning  powers,  an 
insatiable  thirst  for  knowledge,  a  wholesome  respect  for  authority;  to 
these,  genius  enabled  him  to  add  poetical  insight,  rare  sympathy,  and 
fresh  enthusiasm.  These  qualities  were  not  always  perfectly  blended. 
In  particular,  the  extent  of  his  knowledge  often  exceeded  his  ability 
to  reduce  it  to  order;  his  enthusiasm  for  a  theory  sometimes  betrayed 
him  into  too  quick  an  acceptance  or  too  extended  an  application ;  rapid- 
ity of  composition  frequently  marred  the  finished  style  of  which  he 
showed  himself  at  times  capable  and  too  often  precluded  due  selection 
of  material.  Although  Warton  was  unable  to  free  himself  from  many 
of  the  faults  of  his  age,  which  he  inherited  together  with  its  virtues,  he 
added  to  tliem  many  of  the  conspicuous  merits  of  the  next  century, 
which  he  was  able  in  a  remarkable  way  to  anticipate. 


""Craik :    English  Prose,  Introduction,  IV,  p.  8. 


CHAPTER    IX 

The  Poetry  of  an  AntiqujVRY.    1777-1790 

Although  Warton  had  apparentlj^  abandoned  poetry  to  devote  the 
best  years  of  his  life  to  critical  and  historical  work,  the  poet  was  never 
whoUy  lost  in  the  scholar;  his  poetry,  though  slight,  was  always  his 
dearest  literarj-  offspring.  In  1777  he  took  advantage  of  his  reputation 
as  critic  of  Spenser  and  historian  of  English  poetry  to  collect  and 
publish  a  small  volume  of  his  best  verse'  made  up  largely  of  new  poems 
written  during  the  course  of  more  laborious  work  and  showing  the 
influence  of  his  scholarly  interests.  In  this  volume  of  eighty-three  pages 
were  published  for  the  first  time  all  of  the  sonnets  but  two,  most  of  the 
odes,  including  the  best  ones,  The  Grave  of  King  Arthur  and  The 
Crusade,  and  two  short  pieces,  the  Inscription  written  at  a  Hermitage, 
in  Anstey  Hall,  in  Warwickshire,  and  a  Monody,  Written  near  Strat- 
ford on  Avon.  Although  Dr.  Johnson,  who  disapproved  of  Warton 's 
poetry  even  more  heartily  than  he  admired  his  historical  work,  said  of 
this  first  edition  of  his  poems,  'This  frost  has  struck  them  in  again, '^ 
the  poems  were  so  much  admired  that  another  edition^  was  published 
two  years  later  with  the  addition  of  a  single  poem,  The  Triumph  of 
Isis.* 

^Poeins  A  Nezc  Edition,  with  Additions,  by  Thomas  U'arton,  London.  1777. 
The  table  of  contents  contains  this  note,  'The  pieces  marked  with  an  asterisc 
were  never  before  printed,'  and  all  but  seven  of  the  twenty-five  poems  are  so 
marked.  I  am  therefore  inclined  to  believe  that  this  was  the  first  edition  of  the 
poems  and  that  the  so-called  third  edition  is  really  the  second,  the  New  in  the 
title  of  the  first  being  the  cause  of  the  confusion.  Nathan  Drake  however,  thought, 
as  I  once  did,  that  there  were  two  editions  in  1777  of  which  the  copy  in  the 
British  Museum,  just  described,  is  the  second.  Essays  on  the  Contributors  to  the 
Rambler,  Adventurer,  and  Idler,  London  1810,  II,  p.  174. 

-Boswell's  Johnson,  III,  p.  158,  note. 

^Poems.  By  Thomas  IVarton.  The  Third  Edition,  corrected.  London,  1779. 
97  pages.  The  volume  contained  the  following  advertisement :  'These  Poems  were 
collected  and  published  together  in  1777.  Some  of  them  had  before  been  separately 
printed,  to  which  other  unprinted  Pieces  were  then  added.  This  is  the  third  and  a 
revised  Edition  of  that  Collection,  with  the  Addition  of  one  Piece  more.    March  1, 

1779.' 

<Which  Mason  had  regretted  was  omitted  from  the  first  edition,  in  a  letter 
to  Warton,  April  24,  1777.     Mant  Op.  cit.  p.  xviii. 

127 


128  THOMAS  WABTON  [128 

In  1782  Warton  published,  but  without  his  name,  au  eight  page 
paini)hK't  containing  his  Verses  on  Sir  Joshua  Rcy)wlds's  Painted  M'in- 
dow  at  New  College,  Oxford,  witli  this  advertisement:  'The  following 
piece  was  never  originally  designed  for  the  press,  and  would  not  have 
appeared  in  public,  if  it  had  not  been  incorrectly  circulated  in  manu- 
script.' Tlie  artist'^  was  delighted  with  the  verses,  but  with  mingled 
flattery  and  vanity  complained  that  his  own  name  'was  not  hitched  in, 
iu  the  body  of  the  poem.  If  the  titlepage  should  be  lost,  it  will  appear 
to  be  addressed  to  Mr.  Jervais.'*  His  request  was  of  course  granted, 
and  for  'artist'  the  poet  substituted  the  name. 

In  recognition  of  his  merits  as  a  poet  and  his  distinguished  abilities 
as  a  man  of  letters  in  general,  Warton  was  appointed  poet  laureate  on 
the  death  of  Whitehead  in  1785.  Contemporary  opinion  differed  as  to 
whether  the  honour  was  conferred  on  the  king's  own  initiative  or  on 
the  recommendation  of  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds."  The  appointment  was 
at  least  unsougiit,  for  Warton,  although  he  did  not  share  Gray's  con- 
tempt for  the  office,*  had  deplored  the  undignified  necessity  the  laureate 
was  under  of  writing  upon  occasion  and  the  inevitable  triteness  of  per- 
petual repetition."  When  the  office  was  bestowed  upon  him,  however, 
he  accepted  it,  and  expressed  the  required  conventional  flattery  as  best 
he  could,  with  much  emphasis  upon  the  traditional  glories  of  the  i)ast."' 
As  might  be  expected,  Warton 's  laureate  odes  are  the  least  valuable  of 
his  poems ;  they  are  the  most  commonplace  and  show  least  of  his  peculiar 
poetic  gift. 

The  laureate  odes,''  a  short  inscription,'-  one  humorous  poem,"  and 

'According  to  Mant  we  owe  the  portrait  of  Warton  painted  by  Reynolds  and 
now  in  the  Common  Room  at  Trinity  College,  to  his  strong  friendship  for  the 
artist.    Op.  cit.  p.  Ixxxii. 

«See  letter  to  Warton,  May  13,  1782,  B.  M.  Add.  MSS.  no.  36526,  f.  14,  printed 
in  Mant's  Memoirs,  p.  Ixxxi. 

'Nichols;     Lit.  Illus.    VII,  p.  468. 

'Gray  had  declined  the  appointment  on  the  death  of  Cibber,  in  1757,  and  wrote 
contemptuously  to  Mason  of  the  office,  adding,  'Nevertheless  I  interest  myself  a 
little  in  the  history  of  it,  and  rather  wish  somebody  may  accept  it  that  will  retrieve 
the  credit  of  the  thing,  if  it  be  retrievable,  or  ever  had  any  credit.'  Gray's  Works. 
ed.  cit.  II,  p.  345. 

^Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  II,  p.  133. 

'"For  Southey's  praise  of  Warton's  success  in  giving  the  laureate  odes  'an 
historical  character'  see  The  Life  and  Literary  Correspondence  of  Robert  Southey, 
6  vols.     London,  1850.     V,  p.  63. 

"The  Odes  for  the  New  Year,  1786,  1787,  1788  and  the  Odes  on  his  Majesty's 


129]  POETRY    OF     AN     ANTIQUARY  129 

a  considerable  number  of  Latin  poems  were  added  to  the  fourth  edi- 
tion, published  in  1789,"  and  Warton"s  humorous  pieces  were  here 
included  for  the  first  time  in  a  collection  of  liis  poems.  The  poems 
that  had  been  published  separately  were  also  added,  so  that  the  edition 
was  for  the  first  time  practically  complete.  A  reprint  of  this  edition 
appeared  after  Wartou's  death,  in  1791.'^ 

The  poems  that  belong  to  Warton's  later  period,  that  is,  those  that 
appeared  for  the  first  time  in  the  collected  edition  of  1777  and  were 
presumably  written  after  the  publication  of  the  Oxford  Sausage,  the 
laureate  odes,  and  other  occasional  later  poetry,  show,  as  would  be  ex- 
pected, a  considerable  advance  over  his  earlier  work  in  the  direction 

Birthday  for  the  same  years.  The  Ode  on  the  birthday  of  1785  was  omitted  from 
the  1789  and  1791  editions,  but  included  in  Mant's,  1802. 

^-The  Inscription  over  a  calm  and  clear  spring  in  Blenheim  gardcnf^  which 
was  ascribed  to  Dr.  Phanuel  Bacon  in  Gent.  Mag.,  1792  although  the  fact  that 
Warton  included  it  in  this  edition  shows  it  to  be  his. 

'^The  Prologue  on  the  old  Winchester  Playhouse,  over  the  Butcher's  Sham- 
bles seems  not  to  have  been  published  before. 

^*Poenis  by  Thomas  If'arton,  Fcllozv  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford.  The  fourth 
edition,  corrected  and  enlarged.  eEOKPITOT  TA  POAA  AP020ENTA  KAI  H 
KATAnTKN02  EKEINH  EPHTAAO^  KEITAI  TAir  EAIKfiMASI  TAI  AE  MEAAM- 
*TAAOI  AA*NAI  TIN  HTGIE  HAIAN.  London  .  .  1789.  xi,  292  pp.  This  edi- 
tion is  very  rare ;  there  is  no  copy  in  either  the  British  Museum  or  Bodleian 
Library,  and  the  one  in  the  Yale  University  Library  lacks  pp.   (iii)-iv. 

'^''The  Poems  on  various  Subjects  of  Thomas  Warton,  B.D.  Late  Felloiv  of 
Trinity  College,  Professor  of  Poetry,  and  Camden  Professor  of  History,  at  Ox- 
ford, and  Poet  Laureate.  Now  first  collected.  London,  1791.  292  pp.  It  con- 
tains the  following  Advertisement.  'A  reader  of  taste  will  easily  perceive,  that  the 
ingenious  .\uthor  of  the  following  Poems  was  of  the  School  of  Spenser  and 
Milton,  rather  than  of  Pope. 

'In  Order  to  make  this  Collection  of  his  poetical  Works  the  more  complete, 
to  the  Poems  of  a  more  serious  cast,  are  now  first  added,  several  pieces  of  pleas- 
antry and  humour ;  and  also  some  Latin  Poems,  written  with  a  true  classical 
Purity,  Elegance  and  Simplicity.' 

The  standard  edition  is  that  published  by  Mant  in  two  volumes  in  1802,  The 
Poetical  Works  of  the  late  Thomas  Warton,  B.D.  Fellow  of  Trinity  College, 
Oxford;  and  Poet  Laureate.  Fifth  edition,  corrected  and  enlarged.  To  which 
are  now  added  Inscriptionum  Romanarum  Delectus,  and  an  Inaugural  Speech  as 
Camden  Professor  of  History,  never  before  published.  Together  zmth  Memoirs 
of  his  Life  and  Writings;  and  Notes  Critical  and  Explanatory.  Oxford,  1802. 
This  edition  contains  six  English  poems  not  previously  published,  and  reprints  the 
Ode  from  Horace,  Book  III,  Ode  13,  which  had  been  published  with  Joseph 
Warton's  Odes  in  1746.  The  new  poems  were  the  ode  to  Solitude,  at  an  Inn, 
(written  in  1769),  the  Epitaph  on  Mr.  Head,  the  Ode  from  Horace,  Book  III, 
Ode  '8,  and  three  laureate  odes. 


130  THOMAS  WARTON  [130 

of  the  new  movemeut.  They  are  far  less  imitative;  not  only  are  Pope 
and  Swift  largely  ignored,  but  even  Milton  and  the  early  romanticists, 
Thomson,  Parneil,  Young,  exert  less  influence.  They  begin  to  show, 
too,  some  influence  of  contemporary  romanticists,  especially  of  Gray. 
They  are  also  more  markedly  characterized  by  those  peculiar  qualities 
which  liad  appeared  in  "Warton's  early  work,  the  love  of  the  past  and 
the  love  of  nature. 

Four  poems  in  the  volume  are  significant  of  "Warton's  poetical  taste; 
three  show  that  his  allegiance  to  the  older  English  poets  was  unchanged, 
and  one  helps  to  account  for  Gray's  influence.  The  Ode  sent  to  Mr.  Up- 
ton, on  his  Edition  of  the  Faerie  Quecne  expresses  his  early  fondness  for 
'romantic  Spenser's  moral  page'  and  his  joy  in  reviving  his  ancient 
pageantry,  and  the  sonnet  On  King  Arthur's  Bound  Table,  at  Winches- 
ter rejoices  that 

Spenser's  page,  that  chants  in  verse  sublime 
Those  Chiefs,  shall  live,  unconscious  of  decay. 

In  the  Monody,  written  near  Stratford  upon  Avon  the  thought  of  the 
'bard  divine'  who  made  here  his  'infant  offering'  of  'daisies  pied' 
transforms,  'as  at  the  waving  of  some  magic  wand',  a  vision  of  natural 
loveliness  to  a  fanciful  %nsion  of  tragedy.  The  sonnet  To  Mr.  Gray^^ 
expresses  the  poet's  gratitude 

For  many  a  care  beguil'd 
By  the  sweet  magic  of  thy  soothing  lay, 
For  many  a  raptur'd  thought,  and  vision  wild. 

The  influence  of  Gray  is  strong  in  one  of  the  most  interesting  and 
significant  of  "Warton's  later  poems,  the  Ode  Written  at  Vale-Royal 
Abiey  in  Cheshire.  It  is  apparent  throughout  the  poem,  from  the  form, 
the  elegiac  quatrain,  to  the  atmosphere  of  pensive  melancholy  which 
pervades  it.    The  poem  begins 

As  evening  slowly  spreads  his  mantle  hoar. 
No  ruder  sounds  the  bounded  valley  fill, 
Than  the  faint  din,  from  yonder  sedgy  shore. 
Of  rushing  waters,  and  the  murmuring  mill, 

and  continues  with  a  scene  not  unlike  that  with  which  the  elegy  opens. 
But  there  is  an  important  difference  between  Gray's  poem  and  "War- 
ton's.  The  former  is  classical  and  universal  in  its  application  and 
appeal;  the  scene  might  be  any  village  church-yard;  the  conventional 
moralizing  is  exactly  the  sort  which  dignified  the  eighteenth  century, 

>'In  the  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  Warton  had  described  Gray  as 
a  'real  poet,'  'one  who  has  shewn  us  that  all  true  genius  did  not  expire  with 
Spenser.'    II,  p.  113. 


131]  POETRY     OF    AN    ANTIQUARY  131 

and  which  makes  an  almost  constant  appeal  hoth  because  of  its  truth 
and  because  of  the  perfect  form  which  Gray  gave  to  it.  Warton,  how- 
ever, was  describing  a  particular  ruined  abbey,  and  it  called  up  in  his 
mind  visions  of  the  past  in  which  he  was  deeply  interested.  He  de- 
lighted to  reconstruct  the  ruined  abbey,  to  recall  its  departed  glories, 
to  dwell  on  the  themes  dear  to  him,  its  architecture,  its  learning,  its 
minstrelsy,  and  its  romance. 

Here  ancient  Art  her  daedal  fancies  play'd 
In  the  quaint  mazes  of  the  crisped  roof ; 
In  mellow  glooms  the  speaking  pane  array'd, 
And  rang'd  the  cluster'd  column,  massy  proof. 

Here  Learning,  guarded  from  a  barbarous  age, 
Hover'd  awhile,  nor  dar'd  attempt  the  day; 
But  patient  trac'd  upon  the  pictured  page 
The  holy  legend,  or  heroic  lay. 

Hither  the  solitary  minstrel  came 
An  honour'd  guest,  while  the  grim  evening  sky 
Hung  lowering,  and  around  the  social  flame 
Tun'd  his  bold  harp  to  tales  of  chivalry. 

Both  poets  portray  the  transitoriness  of  human  life ;  Gray  advances 
from  the  description  of  an  evening  scene  to  contemplation  of  the  dignity 
and  worth  of  rustic  life;  Warton  to  the  celebration  of  vanished  glories 
prized  even  in  an  ampler  age. 

This  love  of  the  past,  this  revival  of  mediaeval  glories  especially, 
which  occasionally  showed  in  the  earlier  poems  and  appeared  more 
strongly  in  manj'  of  his  later  ones,  connects  Warton  most  closely  with 
the  romantic  movement  and  constitutes  his  most  original  contribution 
to  it.  His  medieeval  poems  have  also  a  close  relation  to  his  other  liter- 
ary work;  they  give  expression  to  the  same  master  passion  that  urged 
him,  as  critic  and  historian,  to  exploit  the  beauties  of  Spenser  and  the 
forgotten  poets  of  early  English  literature.  In  two  of  Warton 's  best 
and  most  characteristic  odes,  he  concerned  himself  wholly  with  the  past. 
These  very  romantic  poems  are  The  Crusade  and  the  Grave  of  King 
Arthur.  The  first  purports  to  be  the  song  that  Richard  Coeur  de  Leon 
and  Blondel  de  Nesle  composed  together,  by  which  the  minstrel  was 
able  to  discover  his  master  in  prison.  The  poem  has  a  fine  swing,  from 
the  beginning  of  the  song 

"Syrian  virgins,  wail  and  weep, 
English  Richard  ploughs  the  deep!" 

to  the  defiant  close, — 

"We  bid  those  spectre-shapes  avaunt, 
Ashtaroth,  and  Termagaunt ! 


132  THOMAS  WABTON  [132 

With  many  a  demon,  pale  of  hue, 

Dooni'd  to  drink  the  bitter  dew 

That  drops   from  Macon's  sooty  tree. 

Mid  the  dread  grove  of  ebony. 

Nor  magic  charms,  nor  fiends  of  hell, 

The  christian's  holy  courage  quell. 

Salem,  in  ancient  majestj- 

Arise,  and  lift  thee  to  the  sky! 

Soon  on  thy  battlements  divine 

Shall  wave  the  badge  of  Constantinc. 

Ye  Barons,  to  the  sun  unfold 

Our  Cross  with  crimson  wove  and  gold!" 

The  favourite  ode,  however,  will  always  be  The  Grave  of  King 
Arthur,  in  which  a  story  of  the  national  British  hero  of  romance  is 
skilfuUy  set  into  a  brilliant  framework  of  mediaeval  splendour.  Warton 
explained  in  a  short  preface  that  the  storj'  was  adapted  from  the 
Chronicle  of  Glastonbury  and  dealt  with  a  Welsh  tradition  that  Arthur 
was  not  carried  away  to  Avalon  after  the  battle  of  Camlan  but  was 
received  by  monks  and  buried  before  the  high  altar  in  Glastonbury 
Abbey.  This  story,  told  to  Henry  II  by  Welsh  bards  at  Cilgarran 
Castle,  induced  him  to  go  to  the  abbey,  find  the  grave,  and,  as  the  ode 
has  it,  establish  a  chantry  at  its  shrine.  The  description  of  the  feast 
with  which  the  poem  opens  is  gorgeously  romantic,  and  splendidly  sug- 
gests the  great  mediffivalist  of  the  next  century,  Sir  Walter  Scott. 
Warton 's  richness  and  harmony  of  diction,  his  stirring  and  vigorous 
appeal  to  the  imagination  were  continued,  but  scarcely  eclipsed,  in  the 
poems  of  his  great  successor. 

Stately  the  feast,  and  high  the  cheer : 
Girt  with  many  an  armed  peer, 
And  canopied  with  golden  pall, 
Amid  Cii^arran's  castle  hall, 
Sublime  in   formidable  state, 
And  warlike  splendour,  Henry  sate; 
Prepar'd  to  stain  the  briny  flood 
Of  Shannon's  lakes  with  rebel  blood. 

Illumining  the  vaulted  roof, 
A  thousand  torches  flam'd  aloof : 
From  massy  cups,  with  golden  gleam 
Sparkled  the  red  metheglin's  stream : 
To  grace  the  gorgeous  festival, 
Along  the  lofty-window'd  hall. 
The  storied  tapestry  was  hung: 
With   minstrelsy  the  rafters  rung 
Of  harps,  that  with  reflected  light 


133]  POETRY  OF  AN  ANTIQUARY  133 

From  the  proud  gallery  glitter'd  bright : 
While  gifted  bards,  a  rival  throng, 
(From  distant  Mona,  nurse  of  song, 
From  Teivi,  fring'd  with  umbrage  brown, 
From  Elvy's  vale,  and  Cader's  crown, 
From  many  a  shaggy  precipice 
That  shade  lerne's  hoarse  abyss, 
And  many  a  sunless  solitude 
Of  Radnor's  inmost  mountains  rude,) 
To  crown  the  banquet's  solemn  close. 
Themes  of  British  glory  chose. 

Equally  romantic,  and  with  the  mystic  charm  of  an  earlier  ago  is  the 
minstrel's  song  of  the  death  of  Artluir, 

"O'er  Coriiwall's  cliffs  the  tempest  roar'd, 
High  the  screaming  sea-mew  soar'd ; 
On  Tintaggel's  topmost  tower 
Darksome  fell  the  sleety  shower ; 
Round  the  rough  castle  shrilly  sung 
The  whirling  blast,  and  wildly  flung 
On  each  tall  rampart's  thundering  side 

The  surges  of  the  tumbling  tide :  ' 

When  Arthur  rang'd  his  red-cross  ranks 
On  conscious  Camlan's  crimson'd  banks : 
By  Mordred's  faithless  guile  decreed 
Benath  a  Saxon  spear  to  bleed ! 
Yet  in  vain  a  paynim  foe 
Arm'd  with  fate  the  mighty  blow  ; 
For  when  he  fell,  an  elfin  queen. 
All  in  secret,  and  unseen, 
O'er  the  fainting  hero  threw 
Her  mantle  of  ambrosial  blue ; 
And  bade  her  spirits  bear  him  far. 
In  Merlin's  agate-axled  car, 
To  her  green  isle's  enamell'd  steep, 
Far  in  the  navel  of  the  deep. 

Warton's  love  of  the  past  was  the  inspiration  also  of  three  of  his 
sonnets.  Two  were  suggested  by  relics  of  the  early  history  of  England: 
one  by  King  Artlnir's  Round  Table,  hanging  in  the  old  Norman  castle 
at  Winchester,  and  the  other  by  the  mysterious  monument  of  'wondrous 
origine'  unknown  at  Stonehenge  on  Salisbury  Plain. 

The  third  of  the  mediseval  group,  the  most  interesting  of  Warton's 
sonnets,  if  not  the  most  interesting  of  all  his  poems  because  it  affords  a 
characteristic  glimpse  of  the  poet-scholar,  is  the  one  Written  in  a  Blank 
Leaf  of  Dugdale's  Monasticon.    It  has  for  its  subject  the  delightful,  tb€ 


134  TfiOMAS  WARTON  [134 

aesthetic,  side  of  antiquarian  study.  That  aspect  made  to  Warton  an 
appeal  quite  as  strong  as  the  scholarly  one ;  it  was  to  him  an  influence 
as  potent  in  poetry  and  art  as  the  other  was  in  history  and  scholarship. 
The  antiquary  has  never  had  a  better  defense  and  justification  than  the 
following  lines: — 

Deem  not,  devoid  of  elegance,  the  Sage, 

By  Fancy's  genuine  feelings  unbeguil'd, 

Of  painful  pedantry  the  poring  child; 

Who  turns,  of  these  proud  domes,  th'  historic  page, 

Now  sunk  by  Time,  and  Henry's  fiercer  rage. 

Think'st  thou  the  warbling  Muses  never  smil'd 

On  his  lone  hours?    Ingenuous  views  engage 

His  thoughts,  on   themes,  unclassic   falsely  stil'd. 

Intent.     While  cloister'd   Piety  displays 

Her  mouldering  roll,  the  piercing  eye  explores 

New  manners,  and  the  pomp  of  elder  days, 

Whence  culls  the  pensive  bard  his  pictur'd  stores. 

Nor  rough,  nor  barren,  are  the  winding  ways 

Of  hoar  Antiquity,  but  strown  with  flowers. 

The  same  note  of  interest  in  the  past  is  struck  rather  frequently, 
but  never  so  forcibly,  in  his  last  poems,  the  laureate  odes.  Aside  from 
this  element,  the  odes  have  very  little  merit  indeed.  They  are  dignified, 
conventional,  and  often  perfunctory.  Warton  was  not  interested  in 
contemporary  events,  and  George  III  made  no  great  imaginative  appeal ; 
therefore  Warton,  like  many  another  laureate,  took  refuge  in  singing 
the  glories  of  English  heroes  of  the  past,  of  Alfred  and  the  British 
legacy  of  liberty ;  of  William  Conqueror  and  the  barons  who  obtained 
Magna  Charta ;  of  Edward  and  the  victories  in  France ;  and  in  lauding 
his  great  predecessors,  the  laureates  of  England. 

The.se  celebrations  of  ancient  days,  together  with  Warton 's  neglect 
of  the  ostensible  subjects  of  his  odes,  were  cleverly  ridiculed  by  'Peter 
Pindar',''  a  poet  whose  coarse  but  frequently  humorous  satires  were 
more  successful  than  his  serious  verse.  In  Ode  upon  Ode  he  parodied 
Warton 's  celebration  of  the   past;   in  An   Expostulary  Epistle  from 

'"The  pseudonym  of  John  Wolcott.  'Peter  Pindar'  was  not,  however,  tlie  only 
satirist  of  the  laureate  odes.  Edward  Forster,  a  merchant  with  considerable 
interest  in  literature,  sent  the  following  parody,  or  'abridgment',  of  the  New 
Year's  Ode  for  i;88  to  Gough, 

Old  Windsor  still  stands  on  a  hill. 

And  smiles  amid  her  martial  airs. 

May  Fnglishmen  still  cock  their  hats. 

And  Frenchmen  humbly  pull  off  theirs. 
Nichols:     Lit.  lUus.  V,  p.  289. 


135]  POETRY  OF  AN  ANTIQUARY  135 

Brother  Peter  to  Brother  Tom,  derided  his  neglect  of  the  present,  and  in 
his  Advice  to  the  Future  Laureat,  written  after  the  death  of  Warton, 
he  pointed  with  some  cleverness  to  his  learning  as  the  cause  of  his  ill 
success  as  a  laureate. 

Tom  prov'd  unequal  to  the  Laureat's  place; 
Luckless,  he  warbled  with  an  Attic  Grace : 
The  language  was  not  understood  at  Court, 
Where  bow  and  curt'sy,  grin  and  shrug,  resort; 
Sorrow  for  sickness,  joy  for  health,  so  civil; 
And  love,  that  wish'd  each  other  to  the  devil! 

Tom  was  a  scholar — luckless  wight! 

Lodg'd  with  old  manners  in  a  musty  college; 

He  knew  not  that  a  Palace  hated  knowledge. 
And  deem'd  it  pedantry  to  spell  and  write. 

Tom  heard  of  royal  libraries,  indeed, 

And,  weakly,  fancied  that  the  books  were  rcad}^ 

The  second  important  characteristic  of  Warton 's  poetry,  the  inter- 
est in  natural  scenes  as  the  subject  of  poetrj',  which  had  been  in  his 
early  period  largelj'  coloured  by  the  influence  of  Milton  and  Spenser, 
was  equally  conspicuous  in  his  later  work.  In  the  later  poems,  however, 
although  he  justified  his  selection  of  such  subjects  from  the  practice  of 
these  favourite  poets,  it  is  pretty  evident  that  he  was  painting  directly 
from  nature.  The  following  short  passage  from  the  ode  on  The  First  of 
April  illustrates  the  closeness  of  Warton 's  observation  of  simple  details 
which  the  pseudo-classicist  would  have  thought  beneath  the  notice  of  a 
poet, — 

Scant  along  the  ridgy  land 

The  beans  their  new-born  ranks  expand : 

The  fresh-turn'd  soil  with  tender  blades 

Thinly  the  sprouting  barley  shades : 

Fringing  the  forest's  devious  edge, 
.        Half  rob'd  appears  the  hawthorn  hedge; 

Or  to  the  distant  eye  displays 

Weakly  green  its  budding  sprays. 

The  modernity  of  Warton  "s  poetry  in  which  the  rustic  delights  of  simple 
life  are  celebrated  was  attested  by  the  fact  that  his  Hamlet,  an  Ode 
written  in  ^Yhichu'ood  Forest,  was  I'epublished  in  1859  with  fourteen 
etchings  by  Birket  Foster,  a  popular  engraver,  who  made  illustrations 
for  editions  of  Milton,  Goldsmith,  Scott  and  Wordsworth,  and  that  a 
second  edition  was  called  for  in  1876.  Yet  for  all  its  'softness'  and 
'sweetness',  the  poem  is  not  one  of  Warton 's  best  efforts. 

^'Wolcott's   Jl'orks,  I,  p.  382;  n,  pp.  61,  and  451   ff. 


136  THOMAS  WARTON  [136 

In  two  sonnets  Warton  shows  an  ability  to  nsc  the  sonnet  for  that 
fonibination  of  observation  of  nature  and  personal  i-eflection'-'  which 
prevailed  in  the  poetry  of  the  next  century ;  they  are  as  reactionary  in 
the  direction  of  the  return  to  nature  as  the  mediaeval  sonnets  were  in 
that  of  tlie  return  to  the  past.  One  of  these  is  a  study  of  nature  and 
inooil,  in  the  furtherance  of  which  the  poet  assumed  the  contrast  between 
the  hopeful  and  the  disappointed  lover.  It  is  apparent  that  at  least 
the  changeful  Surrey  landscape  was  real,  whatever  the  state  of  feelings 
iu  which  it  was  viewed. 

While  summer-suns  o'er  the  gay  prospect  play'd, 
Through  Surry's  verdant  scenes,  where  Epsom  spreads 
Mid  intermingling  elms  her  flowery  meads. 
And  Hascombe's  hill,  in  towering  groves  array 'd, 
Rear'd  its  romantic  steep,  with  mind  serene, 
I  journey'd  blithe.     Full  pensive  I  return'd ; 
For  now  my  breast  with  hopeless  passion  burn'd. 
Wet  with  hoar  mists  appear'd  the  gaudy  scene, 
Which  late  in  careless  indolence  I  pass'd ; 
And  Autumn  all  around  those  hues  had  cast 
Where  past  delight  my  recent  grief  might  trace. 
Sad  change,  that  Nature  a  congenial  gloom 
Should  wear,  when  most,  my  cheerless  mood  to  cliase, 
I  wish'd  her  green  attire,  and  wonted  bloom ! 

The  second  nature  sonnet,  To  the  River  Lodon,  is  even  more  inter- 
esting intrinsically  as  well  as  historically.  Although  one  is  seldom 
justified  in  interpreting  poetry  biographically,  and  though  Warton  was 
extremely  reticent,  I  cannot  but  find  in  this  .sonnet  something  of  that 
personal  note  which  was  characteristic  of  the  new  poetry.  It  is  in  the 
mood  of  melancholy  reflection  upon  a  natural  scene  that  was  so  con- 
genial a  vein  to  Warton 's  pupil,  William  Lisle  Bowles. 

Ah !  what  a  weary  race  my  feet  have  run, 
Since  first  I  trod  thy  banks  with  alders  crown'd. 
And  thought  my  way  was  all  thro'  fairy  ground, 

i^Professor  Saintsbury  has  overlooked  Warton  in  considering  Bowles  as  'the 
first,  for  more  than  a  century,  to  perceive  its  (the  sonnet's)  double  fitness  for 
introspection  and  for  outlook ;  to  combine  description  with  sentiment  in  the  new 
poetical  way,'  where  he  is  accurately  describing  Warton's  power.  Prof.  Saints- 
bury's  omission  of  Warton  among  the  Lesser  Poets  of  the  Later  Eighteenth 
Century  in  the  latest  volume  of  the  Cambridge  History  of  English  Literature 
(vol.  XI,  1914)  is  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  omissions  in  that  history;  and  it 
is  the  more  singular  and  deplorable  since  he  has  included  such  less  important 
poets  as  Anstey,  Bellamy,  Boyse,  Cambridge,  Croxall.  Fawkes,  Mendez,  Tliompson 
and  Woty. 


137]  POETRY     OF     AN     ANTIQUARY  137 

Beneath  thy  azure  sky,  and  golden  sun : 

Where  first  my  Muse  to  lisp  her  notes  begun ! 

While  pensive  Memory  traces  back  the  round, 

Which  fills  the  varied  interval  between ; 

Much  pleasure,  more  of  sorrow,  marks  the  scene. 

Sweet  native  stream !  those  skies  and  suns  so  pure 

No  more  return,  to  cheer  my  evening  road  ! 

Yet  still  one  joy  remains,  that  not  obscure, 

Nor  useless,  all  my  vacant  days  have  flow'd, 

From  youth's  gay  dawn  to  manhood's  prime  mature ; 

Nor  with  the  Muse's  laurel  unbestow'd. 

Closely  akin  to  these  nature  poems  are  those  that  celebrate  the  joys 
of  rustic  life,  poems  that,  still  echoing  Milton,  stand  between  T/ie  De- 
serted Village  and  The  Task.  Of  these  the  Inscription  in  a  Hermitage 
is  the  most  Miltonic  in  its  praise  of  studious  solitude,  but  the  poet's 
joy  in  the  blackbird's  'artless  trill',  the  wren's  'mossy  nest',  his  concern 
to  count  'every  opening  primrose',  to  guide  'fantastic  ivy's  gadding 
spray'  show  the  close  observer  and  real  lover  of  nature.  In  the  Ode  to 
Solitude,  at  an  InHy-"  the  genial  poet  shows  a  keen  enjoyment  of  a 
solitude  shared  with  nature, — 

Then  was  loneliness  to  me 
Best  and  true  society, — 

but  an  equal  impatience  with  the  unrelieved  solitude  of  an  inn, — 

Here  all  inelegant  and  rude 
Thy  presence  is,  sweet  Solitude. 

The  Sonnet  Writte^i  after  seeing  Wilton-House  perhaps  belongs  in  this 
group;  it  affords  an  imaginative  variation  of  Johnson's  and  Goldsmith's 
theme  that 

Our  own  felicity  we  make  or  find.-' 

Warton  celebrates  the  'pleasure  of  imagination,'  the  power  of  Fancy'  to 

Bid  the  green  landskip's  vernal  beauty  bloom 
.\nd  in  bright  trophies  clothe  tlie  twilight  wall, 

a  sentiment  as  characteristic  of  the  author  as  it  is  remote  from  the  moral- 
izing of  those  sturdy  classicists. 

Retlection  and  sentiment  have  got  the  better  of  nature  in  two  odes 
that,  although  popular  with  Warton 's  contemporaries,  fail  to  move  the 

-"Written  May  15,  1769,  between  Thetford  and  Ely,  see  Warton's  manuscript 
copy-books  belonging  to  Miss  Catherine  Lee. 

-'From  the  lines  added  by  Johnson  to  Goldsmith's  Traveller. 


138  THOMAS  WARTON  [138 

modoni  reader.  The  ode  To  Sleep  is  reminiscent  of  Young;  it  invokes 
sleep  to  assuage  grief,  to  'calm  this  tempest  of  my  boiling  blood.'  The 
Suicide,  the  favourite  ode  of  many  contemporary  readers,'-'-  has  fallen 
into  obscurity  in  spite  of,  or  perhaps  because  of,  its  representation  of 
austere  virtue  triumphing  over  weak  sentimentality.  The  most  inter- 
esting feature  of  tlie  poem  now,  at  least,  is  the  vi\'id  portrayal  of  nature 
in  a  forbidding  mood  as  the  background  for  the  sombre  theme. 

Beneath  the  beech,  whose  branches  bare, 
Smit  with  the  lightning's  livid  glare, 

O'erhang  the  craggy  road, 
And  whistle  hollow  as  they  wave; 
Within  a  solitary  grave, 
A  Slayer  of  himself  holds  his  accurs'd  abode. 

Lower'd  the  grim  morn,  in  murky  dies 
Damp  mists  involv'd  the  scowling  skies, 

And  dimm'd  the  struggling  day ; 
As  by  the  brook,  that  ling'ring  laves 
Yon  rush-grown  moor  with  sable  waves, 
Full  of  the  dark  resolve  he  took  his  sullen  way. 

Classical  characteristics  are  not  so  obvious  in  Warton's  poetry  as 
love  of  the  past  and  of  nature.  Although  it  is  difficult  to  point  out 
particular  instances  of  classical  influence  in  his  poetry,  the  careful 
reader  gains  from  the  whole  a  definite  impression  that  the  ^vriter  was 
thoroughly  familiar  with  the  best  classical  poetry  and  alive  to  its  char- 
acteristic beauties.  Mant,  the  editor  of  Warton's  poems,  painstakingly 
pointed  out  a  number  of  parallels  to  passages  from  such  classical  poets 
as  Theocritus  and  Pindar,  Virgil,  Horace,  Ovid  and  Lucretius.  Some 
few  of  the  poems  were,  indeed,  frank  imitations  from  Horace  and  The- 
ocritus. But  Warton's  classicism  is  not  so  clearly  manifested  in 
imitations  from  classical  poetry  or  allusions  to  it  as  in  his  recognition 
of  the  fact  that  there  is  no  inevitable  antipathy  between  the  classical 
spirit  and  'Gothic'  poetry;  that  they  have  in  common  that  imaginative 
quality  which  is  a  distinguishing  characteristic  of  the  mediaeval 
romances  and  which  the  poets  of  a  pseudo-classical  age  lost  by  too  close 
an  adherence  to  the  form  instead  of  an  independent  recognition  of  the 
spirit  of  classical  poetry.  Much  of  Warton's  own  poetry,  therefore, 
dealth  with  mediasval  subjects  with  the  deliberate  purpose  of  restoring 
by  that  means  this  essential  quality  of  great  poetry  which  had  disap- 
peared in  an  age  of  reason. 

==See  Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  clii ;  Recollections  of  the  Table-Talk  of  Samuel  Rogers, 
New  York,  1856,  p.  134;  Drake's  Essays,  V.  p.  186;  Brydges's  Cei'sura  Literaria, 
London,  1807,  IV,  p.  274;  Critical  Review,  XLIV,  p.  in. 


139]  POETRY     OF     AN    ANTIQU.^Y  139 

Because  he  recognized  the  close  relation  between  the  mediaeval  and 
the  classical  spirit,  Warton  distinctly  resented,  in  the  sonnet  on  Dugdale  's 
Monasticon,  the  designation  of  antiquarian  studies  as  'unclassic'.  And 
in  the  Verses  on  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's  Painted  Window  he  pointed  out 
the  possibility  of  a  relation  between  the  spirit  of  the  middle  ages  and  that 
of  classical  antiquity,  as  illustrated,  in  this  instance,  by  their  application 
to  ecclesiastical  architecture.  Rej-nolds,  as  a  typical  representative  of 
the  eighteenth  century  school  of  art,  saw  an  incompatibility  between  the 
'softer  touch',  the  'chaste  design',  the  'just  proportion',  and  the  'fault- 
less forms  of  elegance  and  grace'  of  classical  art;  and  the  'vaulted  dome' 
and  'fretted  shrines',  the  'hues  romantic'  that  'ting'd  the  gorgeous 
pane', — the  'Gothic  art'  of  ancient  magnificence;  the  acceptance  of  one 
meant  for  him  the  denial  of  the  other.  Not  so  with  Warton,  whose  feel- 
ing was  all  for  their  essential  unity. 

The  common  suggestion  that  Warton 's  profession  of  conversion  to 
the  classical  school  of  art,  his  profession  that  he  had  been 

For  long,  enamour'd  of  a  barbarous  age, 
A   faithless  truant  to  the  classic  page, 

was  probably  not  quite  whole-hearted  and  did  not  even  deceive  the  friend 
to  whom  it  was  addressed,  does  not  reveal  the  full  significance  of  the 
poem.  Its  importance  in  this  connection  is  neither  its  generous  recogni- 
tion of  the  beauties  of  Attic  art,  nor  even  the  more  extended  and  sympa- 
thetic description  of  the  magic  of  Gothic  art,  but  the  suggestion  of  the 
possibility  of  combining  classical  and  mediaeval  ideals  to  the  advantage 
of  both.  With  a  just  sense  of  their  characteristic  beauties,  the  greater 
naturalness  and  universality  of  one,  the  stronger  appeal  to  the  imagina- 
tion of  the  other,  Warton  realized  that  in  art,  as  in  poetry,  perfection 
lay  in  their  union,  and  therefore  he  proposed  that  the  great  classical 
artist  should  ^ 

.    .    add  new  lustre  to  religious  light:  ' 

Not  of  its  pomp  to  strip  this  ancient  shrine. 
But  bid  that  pomp  with  purer  radiance  shine: 
With  arts  unknown  before,  to  reconcile 
The  willing  Graces  to  the  Gothic  pile. 

The  immediate  and  later  reception  of  Warton 's  poetry  indicates  that 
it  belongs  much  more  to  the  new  than  to  the  old  school.  Johnson  and 
Hazlitt  may  fairly  be  taken  as  typical  critics  of  the  two  schools:  the 
former  could  see  no  merit  in  the  performance  of  his  friend;  the  latter 
could  not  praise  it  too  highly.  Dr.  Johnson  was  repelled  by  Warton 's 
enthusiasm  for  the  past;  he  could  appreciate  the  benefits  to  be  derived 
from  the  study  of  antiquities  in  illuminating  the  history  and  progress 


140  THOMAS  WARTOX  [140 

of  mankind,-'"  but  he  liad  no  sympathy  with  Warton's  enthusiasm  for  the 
intrinsic  beautifs  of  old  literature  and  art,  nor  with  his  attempt  to 
reenibody  something  of  their  spirit  aud  cliarm  in  modern  poetry ;  he  saw 
in  his  poetry  only  strangeness  of  language  and  form,  or  at  best,  revival 
of  what  was  not  wortli  reviving.  Although  he  protested  that  he  still 
loved  the  fellow  dearly  for  all  he  laughed  at  him,  he  wrecked  his  friend- 
ship with  Warton  by  ridiculing  his  verse  thus, — 

Wheresoe'er  I  turn  my  view, 
All  is  strange,  yet  nothing  new; 
Endless  labour  all  along, 
Endless  labour  to  be  wrong ; 
Phrase  that  time  has  flung  away; 
Uncouth  words  in  disarray, 
Trick'd  in  antique  rufF  and  bonnet. 
Ode,  and  elegy,  and  sonnet.-^ 

Ilazlitt,  on  the  other  hand,  although  disposed  to  blame  Warton  for 
the  defects  of  his  age  in  scholarly  method,  repeatedly  acclaimed  liim  a 
'man  of  taste  and  genius',-'  'a  poet  and  a  scholar,  studious  with  ease, 
learned  without  affectation',-^  and  'the  author  of  some  of  the  finest 
sonnets  in  the  language',"^ — praise  which  accords  well  with  Warton's 
vogue  among  the  poets  who  were  Hazlitt's  contemporaries. 

Interesting  as  Warton's  poetry  is  in  showing  his  own  development 
from  nearly  pseudo-classical  to  pretty  romantic  ideals,  and  valuable  as 
much  of  it  is  intrinsically,  its  greatest  importance  is  to  the  student  of 
literary  history  as  a  factor  in  the  development  of  the  new  movement. 
The  influence  of  the  romantic  poetry  of  this  laureate  poet  can  scarcely 
be,  and  certainlj'  has  not  been,  overestimated,  though  it  has  not  been 
altogether  overlooked.  'If  any  man  may  be  called  tlie  father  of  the 
present  race',  wrote  Southey  in  the  Quarterly  in  1824,  'it  is  Thomas 
Warton,  a  scholar  by  profession,  an  antiquary  and  a  poet  by  choice'.-' 
Southey  mentioned  Bampfylde  and  Russell  as  belonging  to  the  school  of 

'"Sec  Ramblers  83  and  154,  Johnson's  Works,  ed.  cit.  I,  p.  386  and  II,  p.  155, 
and  Idler  85,  ibid.  II,  p.  633. 

"Boswell's  Johnson,  III,  p.  158. 

■-Critical  List  of  Authors,  from  Select  British  Poets,  London  1824,  p.  xii. 

"^Lectures  on  the  English  Poets,  Lecture  VI,  Hazlitt's  Works,  ed.  Waller  and 
Glover,  London  1904,  V,  p.  120. 

^*Ibid.  See  also  his  essay  on  Coleridge's  Literary  Life  from  Edinburgh 
Review,  XXVIII,  Works,  ed.  cit.  X,  p.  138  where  he  says  he  prefers  them  "to 
Wordsworth's,  and  indeed  to  any  Sonnets  in  the  language';  On  Milton's  Sonnets, 
Table  Talk,  Essay  XVIII,   Works,  VI,  175,  and  Critical  List  of  Authors  as  above. 

"XXXI,  p.  289. 


HI]  POETRY    OF    AN    .VNTIQUART  141 

Warton,-'"  the  'true  English  st'lioor;-^  to  them  he  should  have  added  also 
Headlej-  and  Bowles.  This  little  group  of  young  poets  who,  il'  they 
were  not  drawn  into  poetry  by  the  'magnetism  of  Tom  Warton'-"  were 
at  least  strongly  influenced  by  him  to  write  nature  poetry  of  the  new 
type,  and  to  become  also  sonneteers.  They  form  the  slender  thread  that 
connects  him  with  the  major  romantic  poets,  especially  with  Coleridge 
and  Wordsworth. 

There  is  no  evidence  of  direct  connection  between  Bampfylde  and 
Warton.  Bampfylde  was  a  Cambridge  man  who  published  his  first 
volume  of  verse,  Sixteen  Sonnets,  the  year  after  Warton 's  first  collection 
of  poems  appeared.-*  However,  his  somewhat  Miltonic  diction,  his  power 
of  realistic  description,  and  his  sincerity  of  feeling-"  suggest  Warton 's 
verse  and  justify  assigning  him  to  that  school.  The  other  three  poets  were 
personally  attached  to  Warton ;  Russell  and  Bowles  were  students  at 
Winchester,  wliere  they  were  under  the  influence  of  both  the  Wartons 
and  whence  Russell  proceeded  to  New  College  in  1782,  while  Bowles  and 
Headley  chose  Warton 's  college.  All  of  them  published  sonnets  and 
other  verse  of  the  new  sort  during  Warton 's  lifetime,  and  Russell's 
postliumous  volume'"  was  dedicated  to  Warton.  Of  the  group  Headley 
was  perhaps  most  obviously  influenced  by  Warton,  but  Bowles's  debt,  if 
possibly  slighter,  is  at  the  same  time  historically  most  important  because 
he,  more  directlj'  at  least  than  they,  influenced  later  poets.  Headley  has 
not  only  his  master's  appreciation  of  nature  and  his  love  of  describing  it 
and  reflecting  upon  it,  but  also  his  interest  in  the  past,  in  Gothic  ruins, 

-'Two  minor  poets  of  Warton's  group  were  John  Bennet.  a  young  journey- 
man shoemaker,  son  of  the  parish  clerk  at  Woodstock,  who,  with  Warton's  encour- 
agement attained  such  proficiency  that  his  volume  of  Poems  on  Several  Occasions, 
1774,  was  favourably  noticed  in  the  Critical  Revietu  (XXXVII,  p.  473)  ;  and  Wil- 
liam Benwell,  a  friend  and  contemporary  of  Headley's  at  Trinity,  where  he,  too, 
was  encouraged  by  Warton.  His  Poems,  Odes,  Prologues,  and  Epilogues  etc.  was 
published  eight  years  after  his  death,  in  1804. 

^'Herbert  Croft  complained  to  Nichols,  May  15,  1786.  (Lit  Illus.  V,  p.  210) 
that  'The  magnetism  of  Tom  Warton  draws  many  a  youth  into  rhymes  and  loose 
stockings,  who  had  better  be  thinking  of  prose  and  propriety ;  and  so  it  is  with  his 
brother  Joe.  At  school  I  remember  we  thought  we  must  necessarily  be  fine 
fellows  if  we  were  but  as  absent  and  as  dirty  as  the  Adelphi  of  poetry.' 

-'S.  E.  Brydges:  Autobiography,  Times,  Opinions  and  Contemporaries.  2 
vols.  London  1834,  II,  p.  257;  Diet  Nat.  Biog.  art.  Bampfylde;  and  Southey's 
Specimens  of  the  Later  English  Poets.  3  vols.  London  1807,  III,  p.  434,  where 
are  also  some  of  his  poems.  Three  of  his  sonnets  are  included  in  Main's  A 
Treasury  of  English  Sonnets,  Manchester,  1880,  p.  393  fif. 

29There  is  more  pathos  in  Bampfylde's  poems  than  in  Warton's. 

^"Sonnets  and  Miscellaneous  Poems,  Oxford,  1789. 


142  THOMAS  WARTON  [142 

and  in  ancient  poetry."  Bowles's  pensive  love  of  nature  and  his  tender 
anil  often  melancholy  sentinifnt  are  the  qualities  in  Mhich  he  most 
resembles  his  master  and  which  were  most  admired  by  his  contempo- 
raries. The  most  striking  example  of  Warton's  influence  upon  the  later 
romantic  poets  is  through  Bowles's  Sonnet  to  the  River  Itchin,  which 
obviously  imitates  Warton's  To  the  River  Lodon,  and  as  obviously  sug- 
gested Coleridge's  To  the  River  Otter,  while  Wordsworth's  sequence  on 
the  River  Duddon  comes  at  once  to  mind  as  kindred  in  feeling.  In 
general,  of  course,  the  admiration  of  these  two  poets  for  their  less  gifted 
friend  and  his  influence  upon  them  are  well  recognized  facts  of  literary 
history.^^ 

Warton's  influence  upon  the  later  poets  was  not  confined  however 
to  poems  of  nature  and  reflection ;  his  chief  contribution  to  the  romantic 
movement  was  the  revival  of  the  spirit  of  the  past,  a  spirit  which  found 
its  fullest  poetical  expression  in  the  poetry  of  Walter  Scott.  Even 
Bowles  and  Wordsworth,  who  are  most  nearly  in  the  other  line  of 
romantic  development  that  passed  through  Warton,  had  also  an  interest 
in  mediffival  subjects  that  must  be  attributed,  at  least  indirectly,  to  his 
influence."^  Scott's  poetry,  of  course,  represents  the  flowering  of  the 
Gothic  and  mediffival  qualities  which  were  present  in  a  less  perfect  form 
in  one  group  of  Warton 's  poems.  The  similarity  of  temper  and  interests 
in  the  two  men,  and  Scott's  familiaritj-  with  Warton's  work  show  the 

siThe  title,  at  least,  of  Headley's  Sotmct  .  .  Written  in  a  blank  leaf  of  Sir 
William  Davenant's  Gondibert  is  obviously  suggested  by  Warton's  similar  sonnet 
in  Dugdale's  Monaslicon.   His  Verses  Written  on  a  Winter's  Night,  which  begins, — 

Who  heeds  it  when  the  lightning's  forked  gleam 

The  rifted  towers  of  old  Cilgarran  strikes, 

the  lines  Written  amidst  ruins  of  Broomholm  Priory,  in  Norfolk,  and  the  Ode  to 
Chatterton,  all  have  mediseval  touches  that  inevitably  suggest  Warton.  The  origin 
of  Imitations  of  Old  IVelsh  Poetry  in  Ossianic  prose  is  evident.  .  .  The  closing 
lines  of  On  a  fragment  of  some  verses  written  by  a  Lady  in  praise  of  solitude, 
beautifully  develop  the  theme  of  Warton's  seventh  sonnet,  (quoted  above  p.  136) 
and  a  slight  verbal  resemblance  further  indicates  this  source.  In  Headley's  principal 
work,  the  Select  Beauties  of  Ancient  English  Poetry,  (ist  ed.  1787)  the  influence 
of  his  master's  interest  in  early  literature  is  apparent  enough. 

^^See  Coleridge's  Biographia  Literaria,  ed.  Shawcross,  Oxford  1907,  2  vols.  I, 
p.  7  ff. ;  J.  D.  Campbell:    Samuel  Taylor  Coleridge,  London,  1896,  p.  17  ff. 

^^Among  Bowles's  poems  of  mediaeval  interest  are  his  sonnets  on  Woodspring 
Abbey,  1836,  and  on  Lacock  Nunnery,  The  Last  Song  of  Camoens,  The  Harp  of 
Hoel  and  The  Grave  of  the  Last  Saxon.  Wordsworth's  mediaeval  poems  include 
sonnets  on  Canute  and  Alfred,  the  Monastery  of  Old  Bangor,  Crusades,  Richard  I, 
Danish  Conquests,  At  Furness  Abbey,  lona,  and  the  5"o«<7  at  the  Feast  of  Brougham 
Castle,  The  Horn  of  Egremont  Castle,  and  one  that  inevitably  recalls  Warton, 
lines  Written  in  a  Blank  Leaf  of  Macpherson's  Ossian. 


143]  POETRY  OF  AN  ANTIQUARY  143 

influence  of  Warton  upon  the  younger  poet  as  certainly  as  such  things 
can  be  shown.  Quotations  from  Warton  appear  in  the  chapter  headings 
of  his  works  and  upon  the  title-page  of  his  Scottish  Minstrelsy, — 

The  songs,  to  savage  virtue  dear, 
That  won  of  yore  the  public  ear! 
Ere  Polity,  sedate  and  sage, 
Had  quench'd  the  fires  of  feudal  rage. 

Therefore,  whUe  it  would  doubtless  be  too  much  to  claim  for  Warton 
the  whole  credit  for  inspiring  in  Scott  the  enthusiasm  for  the  past  which 
characterizes  his  stirring  mediseval  poems;  for  beginning  and  passing 
on  to  Wordsworth  by  way  of  Bowles  the  meditative  description  of  simple 
natural  objects;  or  for  beginning  the  sonnet  revival,^*  it  is  only  jixst  to 
say  that  he  both  represented  and  furthered  to  an  important  extent  these 
tendencies  incipient  in  eighteenth  century  poetry  and  dominant  in  the 
poetry  of  the  next  century,  in  the  romantic  triumph. 


=*T.  H.  Ward  does  make  exactly  this  claim  for  Warton  in  his  introduction  to 

his  poetry  in  English  Poets,  III,  p.  383. 


CHAPTER  X. 
The  Antiquary. 

Interest  in  the  past  may  well  be  called  Warton's  master  passion;  by- 
turns  it  dominated,  inspired,  enriched  his  literary  work.  It  prompted 
him  to  attempt  a  history  of  English  poetry;  it  was  at  least  partly  the 
source  of  the  historical  method  of  literary  criticism  which  he  introduced 
into  the  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  and  the  History;  and  it  gave 
to  liis  poetry  a  new  theme  and  a  new  interest.  It  produced  also  some 
work  of  a  strictly  antiquarian  character  and  filled  the  notes  of  his  his- 
tory of  poetrj'  with  comments  on  all  sorts  of  antiquities — numismatics, 
topography,  diplomatics,  and  above  all,  architecture.  Upon  these  dis- 
tinctly antiquarian  subjects,  as  well  as  on  literature,  he  was  an  authority 
of  no  mean  importance,  one  apt  to  be  consulted  in  important  disputes 
among  antiquarians.^  One  of  his  earliest  publications  was  strictly  anti- 
quarian in  character,  A  Description  of  the  City,  College  &  Cathedral  of 
Winchester.  The  whole  illustrated  with  .  .  particulars,  collected  from 
a  manuscript  of  A.  Wood,  etc.  The  title  is  a  sufficient  description  of  its 
character.  The  work  was  published  without  date  in  1750.  It  was  re- 
printed in  1857  when  Sir  Thomas  Phillips  printed  privately  at  Middle 

^See  correspondence  with  Gough  anent  the  so-called  Winchester  coin.  Lit. 
Artec.  VI,  p.  177  flf.  notes. 

An  unpublished  letter  to  Philip  Morant,  the  author  of  The  History  and  the 
Antiquities  of  the  County  of  Essex  (1760-80)  shows  that  he  was  always  glad  to  put 
the   result  of   his   incidental   studies    at   the   service   of   his   avowedly   antiquarian 
friends. 
Rev.  Sir, 

If  the  Particulars  in  the  enclosed  Paper,  relating  to  Navestock  in  Ongar 
Hundred,  Co.  Essex,  have  not  come  to  your  knowledge,  I  flatter  myself  you  will 
excuse  this  trouble.  They  are  intended  for  the  next  Part  of  your  Antiquities  of 
Essex.  You  may  be  satisfied  that  the  Account  is  authentic ;  but  if  you  should  be 
pleased  to  make  use  of  it,  I  will  beg  you  not  to  mention  my  Name,  but  only  to 
note  at  the  bottom  of  the  Page,  that  the  Information  was  received  from  Trinity 
College  Oxford.  I  heartily  wish  you  Success  in  your  very  useful  Researches,  &  am, 
Sir, 

Your  most  obedient   Servant, 
Tho.  Warton, 

Fellow  of  Trin.  Coll.  Oxon. 
Oxon.  Jun.  8,  1763. 

British  Museum  Additional  MSS.  37222,  f.  174. 

144 


145]  THE     ANTIQUARY  145 

Hill  from  Wartou's  'own  printed  copy'  in  his  possession.  Thomas 
Warton's  Notes  and  Corrections  to  his  History  of  ^Yinchester  College, 
and  Cathedral  printed  in  1750. 

For  all  of  Warton's  antiquarian  enthusiasm  and  reputation  he  was 
never  witliout  a  sense  of  humour ;  he  saw  the  absurdities  as  well  as  the 
value  of  delving  in  the  past,  and  was  always  willing  to  poke  sly  fun  at  a 
'mere  antiquarian',  even  at  himself  in  that  role.  Of  such  a  character, 
but  additionally  interesting  for  its  humorous  ridicule  of  guide  books  and 
of  university  customs,  is  a  book  published  without  date  in  1760  and 
called  A  Companion  to  the  Guide,  and  a  Guide  to  the  Companion:  being 
a  Complete  Supplement  to  all  the  Accounts  of  Oxford  hitherto  pub- 
lished. Containing,  An  accurate  Description  of  several  Halls,  Libraries, 
Schools,  Public  Edifices,  Busts,  Statues,  Antiquities,  Hieroglyphics, 
Seats,  Gardens,  and  other  Curiosities,  omitted  or  misrepresented,  by 
Wood,  Hearn,  Salmon,  Prince,  Pointer,  and  other  eminent  Topographers, 
Chronologers,  Antiquarians,  and  Historians.  The  Whole  interspersed 
with  Original  Anecdotes,  and  interesting  Discoveries,  occasionally  result- 
ing from  the  Subject.  And  embellished  ivith  perspective  Vietvs  and 
Elevations,  neatly  engraved.  This  ridiculous  pamphlet,  in  which  War- 
ton  with  apparent  seriousness  tells  all  sorts  of  nonsense  about  his 
collegiate  city,  was  extremely  popular  and  went  through  many  editions, 
all  uno^vned  by  the  author.-  The  mock-serious  continuation  of  the 
antiquarian  dispute  over  the  derivation  and  meaning  of  the  name 
Oxford,  which  Warton  affected  to  settle  by  emending  the  reputed  Roman 
name,  Bellositum,  to  Bullositum,  and  by  citing  many  similar  names  in 
the  vicinity  as  evidence  of  its  correctness,  is  a  good  example  of  his  way 
of  burlesquing  antiquarian  pedantry. 

The  favourite  antiquarian  subject  of  local  antiquities  and  parochial 
history  at  one  time  claimed  his  attention  and  led  him  to  write  a  history 
of  his  parish  of  Kiddington,  which  he  hoped  might  some  day  be  included 
in  a  complete  history  of  Oxfordshire,  but  which  should  at  least  serve  to 
illustrate  his  idea  of  how  such  a  history-  should  be  written.  Twenty  copies 
only  of  this  Specimen  of  a  Parocivial  History  of  Oxfordshire  were  printed 
in  the  winter  of  1781-2  for  presents  to  his  antiquarian  friends.^    A  sec- 

='The  Second  Edition,  Corrected  and  Enlarged,'  London  (1762).  A  fourth 
edition  was  published  before  1765  (See  Lit.  Illus.  VIII,  p.  396).  It  was  also  edited 
by  Cooke,  Oxford,  1806. 

^See  Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  Ixxviii.  Copies  are  therefore  rare ;  neither  the  British 
Museum  nor  Bodleian  Library  has  one,  but  there  is  one  in  the  library  of  Winchester 
College.  The  book  has  no  title-page,  but  the  name,  'T.  Warton',  is  signed  to  the 
postscript,  and  the  date,  January  1782,  is  written  in  it.    On  page  11  the  note  of 


146  THOMAS  WARTON  [146 

ond  enlarged  and  corrected  edition*  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  copies  was 
printed  the  following  year  at  Oxford  by  Daniel  Prince.''  A  new  preface 
explained  tlie  author's  theory  of  the  value  of  minute  antiquarian  studies 
as  contributions  to  a  general  history  of  manners,  arts,  and  customs.  It 
declared  his  purpose  of  supplying  a  detailed  study  of  the  locality  he 
knew  best  and  sliowed  how  the  history  of  national  antiquities  might  be 
dra\ra  from  similar  descriptions  of  every  county.  That  is  to  say, 
Warton's  antiquarian  research  was  directed  toward  a  definite  and  usefiil 
end :  it  was  not  an  end  in  itself. 

"Warton's  principal  interest  of  a  strictly  antiquarian  character  was, 
however,  in  mediroval  architecture.  Yet  his  study  of  this  subject,  to 
which  he  devoted  most  of  his  vacations  for  thirty  years,  produced  no 
results  comparable  to  those  of  his  studies  of  mediaeval  literature.  Indeed 
liis  only  published  contribution  to  the  subject  is  almost  his  first  indica- 
tion of  interest  in  it.  One  of  the  digressions  in  the  second  edition  of  the 
Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  is  a  brief  review  of  the  history  of 
architecture  in  England  with  examples  of  the  various  periods." 

Of  all  the  work  that  Warton  left  unfinished  at  his  death,  none  is  so 
tantalizing  as  the  one  he  more  than  once  described  as  Observations, 
Critical  and  Historical,  on  Churches,  Monasteries,  Castles  and  Other 
Monuments  of  Antiquity,  and  which  was  repeatedly  announced  as  ready 

Warton's  presentation  to  the  living  at  Kiddington,  concludes,  'He  is  now  Rector, 
Jul.  ID,  1 781'. 

The  postscript,  the  substance  of  which  was  more  fully  developed  in  the  preface 
to  later  editions,  is  as  follows.  'If  ever  a  History  of  Oxfordshire  should  be  under- 
taken, I  wish  to  contribute  this  account  of  a  parish,  with  which  I  am  most  nearly 
connected,  and  consequently  best  acquainted.  Other  places  might  have  been 
selected,  more  fertile  of  curious  information ;  but  my  choice  was  determined  by  my 
situation.  As  this  account  now  stands  detached,  some  notes,  which  in  an  intire 
history  of  the  county  would  have  been  otherwise  disposed  of,  were  thought  neces- 
sary. In  its  present  state,  I  mean  if  it  never  should  have  the  good  fortune  to  be 
incorporated  into  a  larger  work,  it  may  serve  as  a  specimen  of  the  writer's  general 
idea  of  a  parochial  history.    T.  Warton.' 

This  copy  belonged  to  Cayley  lUingworth,  Archdeacon  of  Stowe,  whose  Top- 
ographical Account  of  the  Parish  of  Scampton,  etc,  London,  1808,  may  have  been 
modelled  upon  Warton's  suggestions. 

*The  History  and  Antiquities  of  Kiddington :  First  published  as  a  Specimen  of 
a  History  of  Oxfordshire.    It  reached  a  third  edition  in  1815. 

^Lit.  Anec.  Ill,  p.  695,  and  VI,  p.  180. 

'Warton  not  very  accurately  described  them  as  'Saxon',  'Gothic  Saxon',  'Saxon 
Gothic,'  and  'Absolute,'  'Ornamental,'  and  'Florid  Gothic'.  By  Saxon  Warton  meant, 
however,  Norman,  and  later  substituted  that  term.  See  note  in  Phillips's  edition 
of  the  History  of  Winchester,  which  reads,  'pro  Saxon  lege  Norman.' 


147]  THE    ANTIQUABY  147 

for  publication/  but  which  never  appeared.  John  Price,  the  Bodleian 
Librarian  and  Warton's  close  friend,  was  authority  for  the  statement 
that  he  purposed  contributing  a  paper  on  the  History  of  Ecclesiastical 
Architecture  in  England  to  the  Antiquarian  Societ.y,  of  which  he  had 
long  been  a  member,'  but  to  which  he  had  not  contributed  any  papers. 
He  also  reported  to  Mant  that  among  Warton's  papers  which  came  into 
his  hands  at  his  death  and  which  he  communicated  to  Dr.  Warton  there 
was  a  manuscript  written  out  read}'  for  the  press  with  directions  to  the 
printer,  which  contained  a  History  of  Saxon  and  Gothic  Architecture.^ 
Such  a  manuscript — and  there  is  less  reason  to  question  Price's  state- 
ment than  to  deplore  the  carelessness  with  which  Warton's  papers  were 
evidently  handled  immediately  after  his  death — has  never  been  found. 
After  Joseph  Warton's  papers  passed  into  the  hands  of  his  son  John, 
they  seem  to  have  been  well  taken  care  of,  and  the  latter  made  a  thorough, 
but  vain,  search  for  the  manuscript.  He  did  find,  however,  what  still 
remains  in  the  possession  of  his  heirs,  some  manuscripts  which  are  of 
value  to  his  biographer  because  they  show  that  he  spent  his  holidays  in 
untiring  devotion  to  this  hobby. 

These  manuscripts'"  are  the  property  of  Miss  Catherine  H.  Lee,  the 
great  granddaughter  of  Joseph  Warton.  They  consist  of  four  copy- 
books of  architectural  notes  made  by  Warton  on  the  course  of  his  vaca- 
tion rambles.  There  are  also  eight  transcripts  or  enlarged  versions  of 
the  first  notes,  and  eight  books  of  copies  of  these  transcripts,  copied  out 
faithfidly  and  much  more  legibly  bj'  the  laureate's  sister,  Miss  Jane 
Warton.  These  copy-books  were  not  the  only  records  of  the  antiquarian 
journeys,  for  one  finds  in  them  references,  'see  Tom  Warton's  Journal', 
or  'N.  B.  Examine  Pockett-Book'.  Of  these  additional  records  I  have 
been  able  to  find  only  three  journals,  in  the  library  of  Winchester  College. 
They  consist  for  the  most  part  of  very  meagre  personal  detail  of  the 
number  of  miles  travelled  per  day,  the  inns  visited,  the  state  of  the 
weather,  the  expense  of  the  journey,  etc.  There  are  also  at  Winchester 
and  in  tlie  library  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  several  more  books  of 
architectural  notes  similar  to  those  in  Miss  Lee's  possession  though  rather 
less  full  and  if  possible  more  untidy  and  illegible.     There  are  no  enlarged 

'See  letter  to  Gough,  June  ii,  1781,  'Warton's  Observations  etc.  .  are  ready  for 
the  press :  but  the  History  of  .Architecture  is  not  yet  finished.  How  soon  he  will 
publish  them,  I  cannot  say.'  Lit.  lllus.  V,  p.  528.  It  was  referred  to  in  the  History 
of  English  Poetry  as  a  work  soon  to  appear,  Vol.  I,  Diss.  I,  p.  (113),  note  a  and 
Vol.  HI,  p.  xxii. 

^Warton  was  elected  in  1771. 

*Mant,  Op.  cit.  I,  p.  xxxii. 

•"They  are  mentioned  by  Sir  Sidney  Lee  in  his  life  of  Warton  in  the  Die. 
Nat.  Biog. 


148  THOMAS  WARTON  [148 

versions  of  them.  The  very  unordered  and  incomplete  condition  of  both 
the  copy-books  and  transcripts  shows  that  they  are  not  tlie  'copy  fairly 
written  out  for  the  press'  which  Price  described  to  Mant,  but  only  a 
collection  of  material  for  it." 

So  far  as  we  can  judge  from  the  notebooks,  the  summer  tours  upon 
which  this  material  was  collected  began  in  1760,  though  there  is  some 
reason  to  think  that  his  habit  of  taking  careful  notes  of  architectural 
antiquities  personally  observed  had  been  formed  earlier.'^  Perhaps  it 
was  an  inheritance  or  the  result  of  youthful  visits  to  historic  places. 
The  idea  of  utilizing  the  descriptions  of  places  visited  for  the  definite 
purpose  of  a  liistory  of  architecture  was  a  later  thought.  As  soon  after 
the  close  of  the  Trinitj-  term  as  it  was  possible  for  Warton  to  get  away 
from  Oxford,  he  would  set  out  alone  or  with  a  companion^"  to  make  a 
leisurel}'  peregrination  or  'ramble'  of  perhaps  two  weeks.  In  his  later 
years  the  journeys  were  often  made  later  in  the  summer  and  probably 
by  chaise,'*  and  if  Dr.  Warton  and  his  family  did  not  sometimes  accom- 
pany liim,  they  at  least  joined  him  occasionally,  for  they  are  mentioned 
as  his  companions  in  the  Winchester  Journals  of  1775,  1779  and  1788. 

Sometimes  the  route  lay  southwestward,  through  Kent,  Sussex  and 
Essex,  with  visits  at  Lewes,  Croydon,  Canterbury,  etc.",  and  admitting 

i^The  following  is  the  titlepage  of  the  manuscript : 

Critical  and  Historical  Observations.  On  Churches,  Castles,  etc.,  in  various 
Counties  of  England.  Taken  from  an  actual  Survey.  Improved  from  the  Author's 
collection  printed  and  pub. 

(only  so  much  added  from  books  as  might  illustrate  and  contirm  what  I  said) 

Persons  on  the  spot  will  find  fault  with  ivhy  I  have  added  'certain'.* 

A  work  of  Taste  &  history  of  manners. 

This  work  is  the  result  of  various  journies  &  the  examination  of  various  MS. 
evidences. 

"On  the  second  page  the  title  reads  'On  certain  Churches'  etc. 

•-For  example,  the  History  of  Winchester  is  based  largely  on  personal 
observation. 

'•■•That  he  sometimes  traveled  alone  is  shown  by  his  Ode  to  Solitude  at  an  Inn, 
written  May  15,  1769,  at  a  village  inn  between  Thetford  and  Ely.  (See  Warton's 
Poems,  ed.  1802,  I,  p.  140,  and  Lee  MSS.)  'Y'et  he  often  uses  the  pronoun  'we'  in 
his  journals,  although  he  seldom  names  his  companion.  Under  the  date  of  Aug. 
19,  1788,  he  says,  'Ride  to  Brockley-Comb  with  Dr.  Warton'  and  under  the  date  of 
Aug.  8,  1789,  his  last  tour,  he  writes,  'met  J.  Price  at  Wilect  (?)'  Winchester 
MSS.   See  also  Trinity  MSS.  Sept.  18,  1767. 

i<For  example,  Sunday,  Aug.  10,  1788,  he  writes,  'Drove  from  Beeston  through 
Wroxair.     Winchester  MSS. 

"May,  1763  and  June,  1764.     Lee  MSS. 


149]  THE     ANTIQUARY  149 

of  a  brief  stay  in  London  ;'*  sometimes  northward,  through  Norfolk  and 
Suffolk,  to  visit  Newark  and  Lincoln,  Norwich,^',  Thetford,  and  Ely;^' 
again  westward  into  Wales,  where  romantic  landscapes  furnished  a  fine 
setting  for  ruined  castles.  Frequently  the  journey  began  at  Winchester, 
when  Joseph  Wartou  very  likely  accompanied  his  brother.  Sometimes 
they  proceeded  by  easy  stages  southward  to  Christ  Church,  where 
Thomas  made  observations  on  the  fine  old  'Saxon'  (Normaii)  building 
with  its  Gothic  casing,  and  indignantly  lamented  the  damage  it  suffered 
during  the  grand  rebellion  when  the  horses  of  the  Presbyterians  were 
stabled  in  the  Lady  Chapel,  to  the  serious  injury  of  the  fine  ornamental 
work  over  the  altar.^"  Thence  they  journied  westward  into  picturesque 
Devonshire  and  to  Exeter,  where  he  found  the  cathedral  'very  heavy 
and  far  from  magnificent';-'  then  northward  to  Taunton  and  to  Glaston- 
bury,^- where  the  portcuUis  and  sprig-rose  of  Henry  VII  were  con- 
spicuous decorative  features  not  only  of  the  abbey  but  in  various  parts 
of  the  town — ornaments  which  Warton  shrewdly  suspected  were  taken 
from  the  abbey  itself.  From  there  they  might  go  on  to  Oxford  by  way 
of  Cirencester.-^  One  of  the  Winchester  journals  describes  a  'Tour 
from  Winton  into  Sussex,  and  round  to  Oxford'  including  stops  at 
Tewkesbury  Abbey,  Worchester  Cathedral,  Westham  Church,  and  a  visit 
at  'General  Oglethorpe's,  a  most  sequestered  romantic  situation,  with 
some  pictures  of  Sir  Peter  Lely  &c.'-*  In  1788,  although  he  had  twinges 
of  gout  and  spent  several  days  of  his  vacation  at  Bath,  he  made  a  long 
journey  from  Sonning  to  Southampton  and  one  day  drove  fifteen  miles 
to  Cheddar  Cliff  where  he  was  impressed  with  the  view.  He  described 
it  as  '  a  most  stupendous  aperture  on  the  South  side  of  Mendip  a  winding 
chasm  of  vast  breadth  with  immense  cliffs,  gigantic  scale  mass(  ?)  of 
various  shapes  &  sizes  most  lofty  &  often  perpendicular  with  Caverns 
here  and  there,  bearing  away  to  Rocky (V)  Hole,  4  miles  off.'-' 

Warton 's  journals  show  that  he  had  a  fondness  for  wild  and  strik- 

'"Warton  was  at  Rochester  May  25,  1763,  and  London  lay  on  his  route  to  both 
Oxford  and  Winchester.  He  was  at  Dover  June  7,  and  Waltham  June  14,  1764; 
the  journey  from  Dover  to  Waltham,  of  which  no  account  is  given,  could  not  have 
occupied  a  week's  time,  and  the  route  again  lay  through  London.  He  was  at 
Hampton  Court,  just  outside  London,  May  7,  1769.     Lee  MSS. 

"1765-    Ibid. 

"1769.    Ibid. 

"May,  1762.    Ibid. 

20May  5,  1761.    Ibid. 

=iMay  8,  1761.    Ibid. 

=2May  14-IS,  1761.    Ibid. 

23May  19,  1761.    Ibid. 

"June  4,  1775.    Winchester  MSS. 

"Aug.  4  to  28,  1788.    Ibid. 


150  THOMAS  WARTON  [150 

ing  scenes  like  those  just  described,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he 
often  applii's  the  term  'romantic'  to  them.  For  examph',  in  his  journal 
for  1767  occurs  this  description:  "On  the  side  of  a  romantic  Valley, 
very  steep  and  rocky,  among  woods  and  vallies(  ?)  stands  Bury  Castle.  . 
The  position  is  most  romantic  &  solitary.'-"  Another  romantic  situation 
was  that  of  the  old  dormitory  at  Brecknock,  'on  a  Declivity  cover'd  with 
oaks  falling  down  to  the  irregular  windings  of  the  River  Usk'." 

In  the  pages  of  these  notebooks  we  catch  many  interesting  glimpses 
of  Warton  and  his  companion;  now  they  are  amid  the  ruins  of  Goodrich 
Castle  in  Herefordshire, — a  castle  Warton  described  as  picturesquely 
situated  'on  the  edge  of  a  woody  and  rockj'  declivity,  rising  from  a 
romantic  and  winding  valley,  water 'd  by  the  river  Wye,'-'  spending  the 
long  May  afternoon  wandering  about  its  scanty  ruins,  tracing  the  lines 
of  the  old  walls,  examining  the  square  Norman  tower,  and  the  Chapel 
indicated  by  the  remains  of  the  great  east  window  and  the  'perishing 
outline'  of  a  saint  in  red  at  the  entrance,-"  and  in  the  late  evening  linger- 
ing over  an  inscription  whose  antique  characters  were  scarcely  legible 
in  the  last  rays  of  the  sun  setting  bcliiiid  the  castle.^"  Again  we  see 
them  at  Hereford  Cathedral,  bewailing  the  disfigurement  of  the  nave, 
when  it  was  turned  into  a  parish  church,  'by  a  most  shabby  set  of  pews 
for  hearing  the  sermons',  and  of  the  arches  opening  into  tiie  choir  by  a 
'very  clumsy  and  tawdrey  organ  gallery '.^^  Frequently  we  find  Warton 
among  the  ruins  of  an  old  church  looking  over  the  old  sexton's  trumpery 
collection  of  'relics,' — 'old  keys,  spurs,  bits  of  pavements,  etc.  dug  up 
from  the  Ruins'^- — in  hope  of  making  a  real  'find';  or  in  a  less  dilapi- 
dated church  leading  on  the  sexton  or  chorister  to  tell  of  the  old  days 
when  the  vaulted  arches  reechoed  at  matins  and  evensong  the  tones  of 
the  now  disused  organ  and  the  voices  of  the  choir  long  since  disbanded."' 
On  all  these  journeys  Warton  "s  enthusiasm  never  flagged ;  with  scrupu- 
lous care  he  noted  down  the  various  styles  of  architecture,  the  general 
state  of  preservation  or  decay,  the  subjects  of  storied  windows,  the  fine 
oM  brasses  and  tombs  which  had  escaped  the  ravages  of  time  and  the 
Presbyterians,  and  the  names  of  antiquarian  works  with  which  his  obser- 
vations were  to  be  compared.  The  brief  journal  of  his  last  vacation 
tour,  in  the  vicinity  of  Southampton,  shows  him  as  eager  as  ever,  and 

=8Sept.  3,  1767.    Trinity  Coll.  MSS. 
"May  18,  1-71.     Lee  MSS. 
='May  12,  1 77 1.    Ibid. 
-"Now  wholly  disappeared. 
'"May  12,  1771.    Ibid. 
'•May  13,  1771.    Ibid. 
'=St.  Alban's,  Dec.  30,  1759.    Ibid. 
'"LlandafT,  May  30,  1760.    Ibid. 


151]  THE     ANTIQUARY  151 

contains  antiquarian  notes  on  the  Roman  road  from  Porchester  to 
Chichester." 

Very  naturally  Warton's  purpose  soon  came  to  be  more  than  sim- 
ply investigation.  His  enthusiastic  love  for  these  fine  old  treasures  was 
roused  to  indignation  when  he  saw  their  dilapidation  hastened  by  the 
vandalism  of  rural  communities  who  pillaged  the  ruins  of  noble  abbeys 
and  castles  to  build  their  own  houses  or  roads, ^^  and  he  did  what  he 
could  to  stop  their  ravages.  According  to  the  late  Henry  Boyle  Lee, 
the  grandmother  of  the  present  owner  of  Warton's  notebooks  used  to 
tell  of  "her  uncle's  self-congratulations  on  the  subject  of  his  efforts  in 
that  direction.  He  would  relate  with  glee  how  often  he  had  stopped 
some  pursy  vicar  riding  with  his  wife  stuck  behind  him  on  a  pillion 
into  Oxford,  or  Winchester,  or  about  any  neighborliood  in  which  he 
had  sojourned,  and  how  he  had  scolded,  aud  argued,  and  almost  shed 
tears,  ratlier  than  fail  to  enlist  their  sympathies  in  favour  of  some 
tomb  or  niche  which  he  had  heard  of  as  being  doomed  to  destruction,' 
or  how  he  had  lingered  'over  ale  and  tobacco  in  out-of-the-way  roadside 
inns'  to  convert  'from  the  error  of  his  ways  some  stupid  farmer,  who 
had  designs  on  the  recumbent  eflSgy  of  doughty  knight  or  stately  dame, 
and  was  about  to  have  it  mutilated  and  maimed  for  the  purpose  of 
making  moi-e  pewroom  for  the  hoops  and  petticoats  of  his  buxom 
daughters'.^"  Not  the  least  valuable  result  of  Warton's  antiquarian 
jaunts,  therefore,  was  that  he  stayed  the  hands  of  many  such  destroyers 
throughout  the  country,  while  he  was  planning  at  the  same  time  to 
arouse  in  the  polite  reading-public  a  renewed  interest  in  the  treasures 
of  their  glorious  past  which  would  ensure  their  future  preservation. 

To  appreciate  the  importance  and  value  of  Warton's  interest  in 
Gothic  architecture,  one  has  but  to  consider  the  depth  of  contempt  and 
neglect  into  which  that  style  of  architecture  had  sunk  in  the  eighteenth 
century  in  the  wake  of  the  revival  of  the  Renaissance  style  introduced 
from  Italy  by  Inigo  Jones  and  popularized  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren. 
The  beauties  of  Westminster  Abbey  and  the  Tower  were  quite  overlooked 
by  eighteenth  century  admirers  of  St.  Paul's,  who  were  not  to  be  easily 
won  back  to  an  appreciation  of  the  beauties  of  mediseval  architecture. 

The  revival  of  interest  in  medieval  architecture  has  been  closely 
associated  by  students  of  the  romantic  movement  with  that  of  mediae- 
val literature,"  and  the  name  which  has    always    occupied    the    most 

3*Aug.  8,  1789.     Winchester  MSS. 

3-Bury,  1769.     Lee  MSS. 

'^Henry  Boyle  Lee:     Thomas  ll'arton,  Cornliill  Magazine,  June,  1865,  vol.  XI, 

P-  737  ff. 

3'For  example,  H.  A.  Beers  :     History  of  English  Romanticism  in  the  Eighteenth 
Century,  1910.    Chapter  VII,  The  Gothic  Revival. 


152  THOMAS  WAKTON  [152 

prominent  place  among  those  who  contributed  to  this  revival  is  that  of 
the  dilettante  and  virtuoso,  Horace  Walpole.  The  manuscript  notes 
on  architecture  of  Thomas  Warton,  however,  help  to  establish  his  claim 
to  be  considered  with  Walpole  in  this  respect  and  show  that  his  interest 
was  deeper  and  his  influence  equally  great. 

Warton 's  study  of  Gothic  architecture  is  the  more  important  be- 
cause it  was  not  a  pose  nor  a  fad,  like  Walpole 's,  but  the  natural 
complement  of  his  other  mediaeval  interests.  In  neither  did  love  of 
the  subject  arise  from  any  thorough  knowledge  of  mediaeval  building. 
Both  were  distressingly  ignorant  (from  a  modern  point  of  view)  of  the 
details  of  tlie  subject,  so  that  even  Warton,  who  studied  the  technical 
side  much  more  thoroughly  than  Walpole,^*  gave  only  a  confused  de- 
scription of  the  periods  and  styles  of  architecture.  Warton 's  interest, 
however,  had  much  deeper  root  than  Walpole 's.  Although  Walpole 
was,  as  Leslie  Stephen  said,  'almost  the  first  modern  Englishman  who 
found  out  that  our  old  cathedrals  were  really  beautiful','"  mediaeval 
art  was  after  all  only  a  toy  for  him,  and  his  absurd  imitations  of  old 
architecture — his  parodies  of  altars  and  tombs  for  his  chimney  pieces 
and  of  cathedral  pillars  for  his  garden  gate  posts — resemble  the  'whi- 
lom' and  'ywis'  of  the  first  eighteenth  century  imitators  of  Spenser. 
His  service  in  setting  a  Gothic  fashion  in  architecture  is  quite  compara- 
ble to  that  of  those  poets  whose  half-amused  fondness  for  Spenserian 
verse  gave  it  a  certain  popularity  even  before  genuine  appreciation 
and  intelligent  study  had  produced  a  justification  of  its  beauties  on 
firm  grounds  of  critical  theory  such  as  Warton 's  Observations  on  the 
Faerie  Queene.  On  the  other  hand  Warton 's  more  genuine  admiration 
for  the  architectural  beauties  of  the  past  urged  him  to  attempt  a  simi- 
lar service  for  medieval  architecture;  his  Observations  of  the  Churches, 
Castles,  etc.  of  England,  with  its  pendent  History  of  Gothic  Architect- 
ure, would  have  been  a  companion  piece  to  his  observations  on  Spenser 
in  all  that  enthusiastic  love  of  the  subject  and  careful  observation  could 
do.  But,  unfortunately  for  the  historj'  of  Gothic  architecture  in  Eng- 
land, Warton  was  a  scholar,  not  a  builder;  poetic  insight  covdd  not 
fathom  the  mysteries  of  architecture ;  and  Warton 's  historj-,  had  it 
been  published,  though  valuable  in  its  daj',  would  have  had  far  less 
revolutionary  and  permanent  value  than  his  critical  work  in  a  sister  art. 

5*In  those  fields  where  their  interests  touched,  Walpole  always  recognized 
Warton's  superior  scholarship  and  mastery  of  the  subject.  When  Warton  sent  him 
the  second  edition  of  the  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  with  a  complimentary 
note,  Walpole  replied  with  sincerity,  'compare  your  account  of  Gothic  architecture 
with  mine;  I  have  scarce  skimmed  the  subject;  you  have  ascertained  all  its  periods.' 
Walpole's  Letters,  Ed.  cit.  V,  p.  237. 

^^11  ours  in  a  Library,  ed.  1907,  vol.  II,  p.  139. 


153]  THE     ANTIQUARY  153 

Warton's  interest  in  mediaeval  architecture  not  only  was  more  genu- 
ine than  Walpole  's  but  probably  even  preceded  it  in  point  of  time  ;  he  was 
certainly  equally  influential  in  revi^•ing  general  interest  in  the  subject 
even  though  the  work  that  was  to  set  forth  its  history  never  appeared. 
Walpole  first  showed  his  interest  in  1750  when  he  declared  in  his  pri- 
vate correspondence  his  purpose  of  building  a  'little  Gothic  castle  at 
Strawberry  Hill '  ;^"  by  that  time  Warton  had  showai  in  three  publica- 
tions his  admiration  for  Gothic  architecture.  His  Pleasures  of  Melmi- 
choly,  written  in  1745  and  published  in  1747,  contained  many  references 
to  it;  his  Triumph  of  IsLi,  1749,  has  a  eulogy  of  the  Gothic  beauties  of 
Oxford,  and  his  Description  of  Winchester,  1750,  is  full  of  admiring 
descriptions  of  media?val  architecture.  If  Walpole "s  tastes  were  more 
talked  of  among  gentlemen  of  fashion,  and  his  influence  is,  for  that 
reason,  more  apparent  to  the  student  of  the  period,  Warton 's  had  a  wider 
circulation  among  a  substantial  class  of  growing  importance,  and  his 
influence  therefore  deserves  greater  recognition  than  it  has  yet  received. 
His  ser'S'ices  in  arresting  the  destruction  of  the  crumbling  remains  of 
feudal  castles  and  mediaeval  abbeys  under  the  combined  depredations 
of  time  and  ruthless  neighbours,  though  quite  unostentatious,  were  more 
persistent  and  probably  far  more  effective  than  Walpole 's,  especially 
since  his  landlessness  saved  him  from  that  temptation  to  add  a  few 
genuine  old  Gothic  pieces  to  a  miscellaneous  collection  of  imitations  to 
which  both  Walpole  and  Scott  yielded. 

Therefore,  for  his  genuine  and  deep-rooted  admiration  for  Gothic 
architecture,  as  shown  in  his  poetry  and  in  his  critical  work,  for  his 
persistent  efforts  to  comprehend  its  forms  and  development,  for  his 
attempt  to  write  its  history  illustrated  with  descriptions  of  many  of  its 
best  examples  throughout  England,  and  for  his  quiet  but  earnest  efforts 
to  preserve  these  examples,  Warton 's  name  deserves  to  stand  high  on 
the  list  of  those  who  contributed  to  the  revival  of  interest  in  medieval 
architecture  as  part  of  the  wliole  mediaeval  revival.  Yet,  however 
valuable  was  his  strictly  antiquarian  work,  his  perception  of  the  relative 
unimportance  of  such  studies,  which  distinguished  him  from  the  'mere 
antiquarian',  led  him  to  reserve  it  for  his  holidays,  while  he  devoted 
his  best  energies  to  works  of  whose  immediate  and  lasting  value  there 
is  no  question. 


*'>Letters,  ed.  cit.  II,  p.  423. 


CHAPTER   XI 
Last  Years.      1780-1790. 

One  of  the  most  important  among  the  varied  interests  that  dis- 
tracted Warton  from  his  purpose  of  completing  the  History  of  English 
Pocirif  was  the  final  expression  of  his  lifo-long  devotion  to  Milton.  The 
constancy  of  this  interest  had  been  repeatedly  shown,— by  digressions 
on  Milton's  poetry  in  his  first  critical  work,  by  the  obvious  influence 
of  Milton  on  his  own  poetry,  and  by  frequent  references  to  him  in  the 
history  of  poetry.  The  result  of  this  long  study  was  that  in  1785 
"Warton  published  one  of  his  best  works,  an  edition  of  Milton's  shorter 
poems.-  Like  his  father,'*  the  editor  was  eager  to  establish  the  great 
poet's  reputation.  On  the  basis  of  his  own  sound  scholarship  he  com- 
pelled recognition  of  Milton's  importance  in  the  eighteenth  century  by 
describing  the  rise  of  a  'school  of  Milton  .  .  in  emulation  of  the  school 
of  Pope',*  and  secured  a  fuller  appreciation  of  his  poetry  by  a  modern 
interpretation  of  it,  especially  by  applying  to  its  study  the  new  historical 
method. 

Warton  had  previously  recognized  the  need  for  the  historical  study 
of  Milton  when  he  pointed  out  in  the  Observations  that  an  acquaintance 
with  that  very  mediaeval  literature  which  had  been  mistakenly  over- 
looked even  in  the  study  of  Spenser  was  also  important  for  the  study 
of  IMilton.  He  realized  that  since  Milton  was  at  least  partly  'an  old 
Englisli  poet',  he  required  'that  illustration,  without  which  no  old 
English  poet  can  be  well  illustrated','  which  is  to  be  found  in  'Gothic' 
literature.  Tlie  great  merits,  therefore,  of  Warton 's  edition  of  Milton 
arise  from  his  ripe  scholarship  and  his  excellent  poetical  taste.  His 
acquaintance  with  many  of  the  poets  with  whom  Milton  must  have  been 
familiar  enabled  him  correctly  to  interpret  his    poet;    his    taste    and 

'Yet  the  plan  was  never  wholly  abandoned.  See  Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  Ixxviii; 
Lit.  Altec.  Ill,  p.  696,  and  preface  to  the  edition  of  Milton,  1785. 

-Poems  upon  Several  Occasions,  English,  Italian,  and  Latin,  .  by  John  Mil- 
ton .  with  notes  critical  and  explanatory,  and  other  illustrations,  by  Thomas 
Warton,  London  1785.  Second  edition,  'witli  many  alterations,  and  large  additions', 
London  1791. 

^For  whom  he  claimed  the  merit  of  having  introdnceil  the  shorter  poems  to 
Pope.    Ed.  Milton,  1791,  Pref.  p.  x. 

*Ibid.  p.  xii. 

^Ibid.  p.  xxiv. 

154 


155]  LAST   TEARS  155 

sympathy  helped  him  to  point  out  Milton's  chief  beauties.  The  notes 
to  the  edition  are  a  rich  collection  of  comment  upon  the  work  of  other 
editors,  of  corrections  of  textual  emendations  by  comparison  with  the 
Milton  autograph  manuscript*  as  well  as  with  early  editions,  of  expla- 
nations of  obscure  words  and  figures  by  the  study  of  modern  and 
classical  parallels,  and  of  critical  appreciation  of  poetical  excellences. 

Besides  contributions  to  the  literary  study  of  Milton,  Warton  made 
an  important  discover}'  of  biographical  material  when  he  prepared  for 
inclusion  in  the  second  edition  a  copy  of  Milton's  nuncupative  will, 
together  with  the  evidence  taken  at  the  hearing  of  the  case  on  its  being 
contested.'  Another  important  addition  was  his  account  of  the  origin 
and  history  of  Comus.^ 

The  result  of  a  lifetime  of  study  was  an  edition  of  Milton  that  is 
not  only  one  of  Warton 's  best  works,  but  one  that  has  been  described 
by  a  modern  editor  of  Milton  as  'one  of  the  best  books  of  comment  in 
the  English  language."  It  is  generally  recognized  as  an  important 
source  for  the  study  of  Milton."  And  on  the  whole  its  merits  were 
pretty  well  recognized  even  when  it  first  appeared.  In  the  thirty  years 
that  had  elapsed  since  his  commentarj-  on  Spenser  was  published,  his- 
torical criticism  had  made  such  progress  that  some  readers  could 
appreciate  the  work  of  a  critic  who  was  'not  less  conversant  with 
Gothic  than  with  classical  knowledge.'"  This  attitude  of  appreciative 
approval  was  not,  however,  universal ;  an  anonymous  letter  to  the  editor'^ 
attacked  the  work  not  only  on  this  very  ground  that  it  quoted  too 
extensively  from  the  'English  Black  Letter  Classics'  and  fostered  the 

'At  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  A  description  of  it  with  variant  readings 
forms  an  appendix  to  Warton's  second  edition,  pp.  578-590. 

'After  a  long  and  fruitless  search  Warton  was  obliged  to  confess  in  the  first 
edition  that  he  was  unable  to  find  the  will,  and  he  concluded  that  it  was  no  longer 
in  existence.  With  the  aid  of  Sir  Wm.  Scott,  however,  he  was  able  to  add  it  to 
the  second  edition.     See  Pref.  p.  xlii. 

'Reprinted  in  Conius,  a  mask:  presented  at  Ludlow  Castle  1634  etc.  London, 
1799,  and  in  Brydges's  ed.  of  the  Poetical  Works  of  Milton,  6  vols.  1835,  vol.  V, 
P-  173.  ff- 

'David  Masson  :  The  Poetical  Works  of  John  Milton,  3  vols.  London,  1874, 
III,  p.  341. 

'"Warton's  notes  were  transferred  almost  bodily  to  Todd's  'Variorum'  edition 
1801,  to  Hawkins's  ed.,  1824,  and  they  have  been  drawn  upon  ever  since.  See  also 
Brydges's  ed.  1835,  and  the  Aldine  ed.  1845. 

''■^Critical  Review,  May  1785.  LIX,  p.  321.  See  also  Gent.  Mag.  1785, 
LV^  pp.  290  ff.,  374  ff.,  457  ff. ;  Monthly  Rev.  LXXIX,  p.  97  ff.  and  Hawkins's 
preface. 

^^A  Letter  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Thomas  Warton  on  his  late  edition  of  Milton's 
Juvenile  Poems,  London,  1785. 


156  THOMAS  WARTON  [156 

growing  'Relish  for  all  such  Reading  as  was  never  read,''^  but,  more 
justly,  for  its  tendency  to  over-long  and  tedious  explanations  of  trifling 
points  and  for  the  unnecessary  severity  of  the  criticism  of  Milton's 
Puritanism.  The  latter  are  undoubtedly  the  defects  of  the  work;  the 
former  is,  however,  one  of  its  chief  merits  and  the  principal  source  of 
its  sympatlietic  interpretation  of  the  poet.  An  exchange  of  mild  hos- 
tilities on  the  subject  of  the  edition  of  Milton  between  Warton's  critics 
and  his  admirers,  which  appeared  in  the  Gentleman's  Magazine  during 
1785  and  1786,"  has  no  critical  value. 

The  success  of  the  edition  of  Milton's  shorter  poems  encouraged 
Warton  to  continue  and  complete  it  with  a  second  volume  containing 
a  similar  study  of  Samson  Agonistes  and  Paradise  Regained}'^  He 
therefore  removed  from  the  first  volume  such  notes  as  related  particu- 
larly to  those  poems  and  prepared  others.  But  this  plan,  like  other  of 
his  projects,  was  never  completed.  It  was,  however,  carried  to  such 
an  advanced  state  of  completion  that  in  the  summer  of  1789  "Warton 
expected  it  to  appear  the  following  April.'"  The  second  edition  of  the 
minor  poems,  which  was  to  be  the  first  volume  of  the  intended  whole," 
was  in  the  hands  of  the  printer  at  the  time  of  his  death,'*  and  was 
issued  without  alteration  the  following  year.  It  is  probable  that  most 
of  the  notes  for  the  second  volume  were  lost,  as  Mant  says,'''  in  that 
removal  of  "Warton's  papers  from  Oxford  to  "Winchester  which  was  so 
disastrous  to  the  notes  for  the  fourth  volume  of  the  history  of  poetry. 

"/bicf.  p.  40. 

"LV  pp.  416  and  435,  LV=  p.  513,  and  LVI^  pp.  211-214. 

>=Mant  reported  an  unsubstantiated  rumour  to  the  effect  that  the  king  had 
suggested  the  enlargement  of  the  plan.    Op.  cit.  p.  xc. 

'"He  wrote  to  Steevens  from  Southampton  July  27,  1789,  'My  first  volume, 
with  many  considerable  alterations  and  accessions,  is  quite  ready  for  Press ;  and 
the  Copy  of  the  second  is  in  great  forwardness,  so  that  I  believe  I  shall  be  out 
by  next  April.'    Bodl.  MSS.  Eng.  Misc.  C.  i,  fol.  86. 

''The  signatures  of  this  volume  are  numbered  Vol.  I  in  anticipation  of  the 
second  volume. 

'^Toward  the  close  of  the  long  vacation  at  Winchester  he  wrote  to  Malone, 
'I  am  deep  in  my  Milton,  and  go  to  press  with  that  work  the  7th.  of  November' 
(Winton,  Sept.  30th,  1789,  Brit.  Mus.  Addit.  MSS.  30375,  no.  11),  and  to  Price,  'I 
return  with  my  new  edition  of  Milton  ready  for  press  at  the  Clarendon.'  (Oct. 
12,  1789,  Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  Ixxxix.  See  also  Mant,  p.  xc  and  the  preface  to  the 
second  edition  of  Milton,  p.  xxvi).  A  little  later  he  wrote  again  to  Malone,  'We 
are  at  press  most  rapidly  with  Milton'  (B.  M.  MSS.  as  above  no.  12),  and,  'I  have 
lately  been  so  much  hurried  by  .  .  .  Milton's  Proofs  .  .  .  that  I  have  not  been  able 
to  find  the  Transcript  as  I  promised.'     (i6th  Dec.  1789,  same,  no.  14). 

'"Op.  cit.  p.  xci. 


157]  LAST   TEARS  157 

Joseph  Wartou  long  inteuded  to  publish  in  completion  of  the  edition,-" 
the  few  notes  that  remained,  but  he  never  did  so.  After  his  death, 
his  son,  John  Warton,  sent  them  to  Todd  to  be  used  in  his  second  edition 
of  Milton.=' 

In  the  preparation  of  his  edition  of  Milton,  Warton,  as  usual,  en- 
gaged the  help  of  his  friends  in  the  search  for  wanted  books  and 
manuscripts.  I  cull  from  his  letters  evidence  of  a  few  such  borrowings. 
From  Isaac  Reed  he  begged  the  favour  of  'T.  Randolph's  Poems, 
printed  at  Oxford  in  1637,-=  not  1640,  which  is  the  second  edition, '^^ 
which  he  thought  might  be  the  edition  containing  Comus-*  described 
by  Sir  Henry  Wotton.-''  Being  unable  to  find  such  an  edition,  he  came 
to  a  conclusion  which  was  borne  out  by  his  own  experience  of  old  Eng- 
lish books,  that  the  combination  was  made  by  the  binder.  He  consulted 
Steevens,  to  whom  he  sent  notes  on  Shakespeare,  about  the  Milton 
manuscript  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, ="  and  arranged  to  make 
transcripts  from  it  when  he  should  visit  Cambridge. ='  He  twice  ac- 
knowledges 'hints  for  Milton'  from  Malone,  but  does  not  indicate  their 
character.^' 

The  preparation  of  the  two  editions  of  Milton  and  of  the  enlarged 
edition  of  his  poetry — and  he  had  not  wholly  abandoned  the  history  of 
poetry — was  not  so  engrossing  that  Warton  did  not  find  time  to  take  a 
lively  interest  in  the  literary  labours  of  his  friends.  During  his  whole 
life  he  had  been  as  eager  to  help  them  as  he  was  glad  to  acknowledge 
their  contributions  to  his  own  work.     He  was  at  this  time  particularly 

-"See  letter  to  Hayley,  1792,  Wooll.  Op.  cit.  p.  404. 

-^y  vols,  London,  1809,  vol.  I,  pref.  p.  vi. 

2=Warton  corrected  this  date  to  1638  in  his  second  ed.  Milton,  p.  119. 

-'Letter  to  Isaac  Reed,  April  13th,  1873.  Montague  d.  2,  fol.  51.  This  letter  and 
those  preceding  and  following,  to  Malone  and  Steevens,  are  printed  in  full  with 
notes  in  the  Journal  of  English  and  Germanic  Philology,  XIV,  no.   I,  pp.  96-I18. 

=*'You  were  properly  right  in  guessing  why  I  wished  to  see  this  Book.  I  have 
been  (with  you)  long  searching  for  Comus  at  the  end  of  this  volume  of  Ran- 
dolph, .  .  I  think  Mr.  Bowie  (Wilts)  told  me  he  saw  a  Randolph,  with  Comus 
annexed.'    Letter  to  Reed,  April  I9tli,  1783.    Bodl.  MSS.  Montague  d.  2,  fol.  54. 

=^See  Warton"s  Milton,  second  edition,  pp.  118  ff. 

=8Western  MSS.  no.  583.     See  also  Milton,  ed.  cit.,  pp.  578-590. 

-'The  Trinity  manuscript  will  not  be  wanted  until  we  arrive  at  the  end  of  the 
present  volume;  I  think  with  you,  that  I  must  [be]  the  Transcriber;  and  I  will 
endeavour  to  arrange  the  matter  so  as  to  visit  Cambridge  at  Christmas  next,  and 
to  do  the  Business.'  Letter  to  Steevens,  Southampton,  July  27th,  1789.  Bodl. 
MSS.  Eng.  Misc.  C.  i,  fol.  86. 

-8'Many  thanks  for  the  hints  for  Milton',  Purbrook,  Aug.  17th,  1787,  and,  'I 
avail  myself,  with  many  thanks,  for  your  hints  to  my  Milton.'  Oxon.  Dec.  6,  1789, 
Brit.  Mus.  MSS.  Addit.  30375,  nos.  8  and  13. 


158  THOMAS  WARTON  [158 

interested  in  Maloue's  plan  for  an  edition  of  Shakespeare,  and  was 
able  to  be  of  considerable  lielp  in  its  preparation,  contributing  to  it 
from  his  collections  for  the  later  and  unfinished  portion  of  his  history 
of  poetry.  For  this  purpose  he  called  Malone's  attention  to  'a  thin 
folio  of  manuscript  miscellaneous  poems,  in  which  I  believe  are  the 
pieces  you  wish  [Mr.  Downes]  to  transcribe,'-"  which  contained  Basse's 
'Epitaph  on  Shakespeare',^"  among  other  pieces.-'^  He  also  pointed  out 
Spenser's  sonnet  in  the  life  of  Scanderbeg,^-  and  'A  Description  of 
the  Queens  (Elizabeth)  Entertainment  in  Progress  at  Lord  Hartford's 
at  Elmtham  in  Ilantshire,  1591',^^  which  he  found  'at  a  friend's  house 
in  Hampshire. ''*  He  transcribed  portions  from  the  manuscripts  of 
Wood  and  Aubrey  with  reference  to  Speuser,^^  Jonson,^"  and  Shake- 
speare.^^ He  sent  Wright's  Ilistoria  Histrionica,  1699,'*  which  had  been 
reprinted  as  the  preface  to  the  eleventh  volume  of  Dodsley's  Plays,  his 
own  copy  of  the  third  edition  of  Venus  and  Adonis,'^  and  Chettle's 
Kind  Hart  Drcamc  from  Winchester.^"    He  also  arranged  for  the  copy- 

=°Jun.  22d,  1781,  same  MSS.  no.  I. 

^oWarton  at  first  ascribed  this  poem  to  Donne  because  it  was  included  in  the 
first  edition  of  his  poems  in  1633. 

s'The  Rawlinson  MSS.  14652  (now  Rawl.  poet.  161)  written  about  1640,  con- 
tains 'Shakespeare's  epitaph'  (fol.  13)  and  'one  or  two  pieces  (a  Sonnet  &  an 
Epitaph),  signed  W.  Shakespeare.  This  Manuscript  is  about  the  times  of  Charles 
the  First.'    Letter  to  Malone,  .Tun.  22d,  1781,  as  above. 

•■'-The  sonnet  beginning  'Wherefore  doth  vaine  Antiquity  so  vaunt'  which 
appears  as  a  dedicatory  poem  to  The  Historie  of  George  Castriot,  etc.  London, 
1596. 

^^The  honourable  Entertainement  gieven  to  the  Queenes  Mojestie  in  Progresse, 
at  Elvetham  in  Hampshire,  by  the  right  Honorable  the  Earle  of  Hertford,  1591, 
London,  1591. 

^^Odiham.  Hants.    Jul.  29,  1787  [9?]  MS.  as  above,  no.  5. 

''"Sept.  30th.  1789  and  21st  Nov.  1789,  same  MS.  nos.  11  and  12. 

'"Dec.  6,  16,  20,  1789,  same  MS.  nos.  13,  14  and  15. 

3'i6th  Dec.  same  MS. 

38'Wright's  Preface  shall  also  be  sent  with  Shakespeare's  Poem.'  Trin.  Coll. 
0.\on.  Mar.  19,  1785,  same  MS.  no.  2. 

39'By  a  coach  of  next  Thursday  you  will  receive  the  Venus  and  Adonis.  It 
is  bound  up  with  many  coeval  small  poets,  the  whole  making  a  Dutch-built  but 
dwarfish  volume.'     (Same  letter). 

The  volume  was  apparently  wanted  again  two  years  later,  for  Warton  then 
wrote  to  Malone,  'I  am  exceedingly  sorry  to  be  so  far  from  Oxford,  as  to  be 
hindered  from  accommodating  you  immediately  with  the  Venus  and  Adonis.  If 
I  should  be  at  Oxford  within  three  weeks,  I  will  send  it.  Upon  Recollection,  Dr. 
Farmer  has  a  Copy,  who  will  undoubtedly  lend  it  with  pleasure.'  Purbrook-Park, 
Kear  Portsmouth,  Jul.  29th,  1787.    Same  MS.  no.  7. 

^'Oxon.  March  30th.,  1785,  same,  no.  3. 


159]  LAST   YEARS  159 

ing  of  a  portrait  of  the  actor  Lowin,  in  the  Ashmolean  Museum.'''  'A 
good  engraving'  of  it,  he  thought,  woukl  be  'a  most  proper  and  inter- 
esting ornament  of  your  new  Edition.  ...  I  am  sure  it  will  make  an 
excellent  head."^-  Notes  on  the  description  and  history  of  Beauliexi 
and  Tichfield  for  the  ^ Soxdhampton  Memoirs''"^  were  quite  in  Warton's 
line,  and  promptly  supplied.** 

Although  his  literary  achievement  is  his  only  claim  upon  poster- 
ity, Warton  did  not  regard  himself  as  primarily  a  man  of  letters. 
During  the  whole  of  his  busy  and  fruitful  literary  career  he  did  not 
neglect  what  lie  always  considered  his  first  duties,  as  fellow  and  tutor 
of  Trinity  College,  as  professor  of  the  University  of  Oxford,  and  as 
clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England.  It  is  in  the  last  capacity  that  he 
is  most  overlooked,  and  justly.  Yet,  although  Warton's  career  as  a 
clergyman  is  not  important  in  his  history,  it  is  not  discreditable  judged 
by  the  standards  of  his  day,  nor  is  it  wholly  without  interest.  Neither 
his  talents  nor  his  ambitions  lay  in  the  direction  of  clerical  work ;  he 
sought  no  preferments,  and  his  abilities  as  a  divine  were  not  such  as  to 
command  substantial  rewards.  Intended  by  his  father  for  the  church 
as  the  most  honourable  calling  open  to  a  man  of  his  family  and  parts 
and  as  the  one  calculated  to  make  least  exacting  demands  upon  his  time 
or  abilities,  yet  one  which  ensured  at  tlie  worst  a  comfortable  living 
and  at  the  best  almost  unlimited  opportunities  for  preferments  and 
distinction  should  he  prove  ambitious,  Thomas  Warton  accepted  this 
most  natural  view  of  his  career.  Immediately  upon  taking  his  first 
degree  he  entered  holy  orders  and  proceeded  in  due  time  to  the  divinity 
degree.*''  His  only  preferments  were  obscure  village  churches  in  the 
neighborliood  of  Oxford,  which  had  at  least  the  merit  of  not  interrupt- 
ing his  residence  there  nor  interfering  much  with  his  scholarly  pursuits. 
His  first  appointment  was  to  the  curacy  of  Woodstock,  Oxfordshire, 
which  he  served  for  nearly  twenty  years.*"     In  October,  1771,  he  was 

^'In  the  leUer  of  Mar.  19,  1785,  he  says,  'I  have  seen  Lowin's  picture,'  and 
describes  it.  He  was  afraid,  however,  that  the  Custos  of  the  Aslr.iwlcan  could 
not  permit  the  picture  to  be  sent  to  Town,  and  two  year's  later  he  arranged  for 
Malone's  artist  to  'work  in  some  of  the  Apartments  of  the  Museum.'  27th  Oct. 
1787. 

«20xon.  Mar.  30th,  1785. 

*3See  Boswell's  edition  of  Malone's  Shakespeare,  XX,  pp.  433-5  for  another 
letter  on  the  same  subject. 

■•■•Purbrook,  .'\ug.  17th,  1787. 

^''A.B.  1747,  B.D.   1767.     Foster:     Alumni  Oxonienses,  1745-1886,  IV,  p.   1505. 

^^2/  April,  1755  to  3  April,  1774.  Wartoniana,  in  The  Literary  Journal:  a 
Review  of  Literature,  Science,  Manners,  Politics  for  the  year  1803,  vol.  I.  London 
1803,  p.  601. 


160  THOMAS  WARTON  [160 

presenteil  to  the  small  living  of  Kiddington,*'  near  Woodstock,  which 
he  retained  until  his  deatli.  Two  other  small  livings  are  also  assigned  to 
him,  the  vicarage  of  Shalfield,  Wiltshire/'  and  Hill  Farranee,  Somerset, 
the  gift  of  his  college." 

In  the  pulpit  Warton  was  jjrobably  not  very  effective.  His  indis- 
tinct and  hurried  manner  of  speaking  made  him  very  difficult  to  under- 
stand."" In  accord  with  a  practice  in  better  repute  in  the  eighteenth 
century  than  now,  he  did  not  always  take  pains  to  write  his  own  sermons, 
and  he  preached  the  same  ones  repeatetlly.''  Wlien,  as  a  young  man 
who  had  not  yet  taken  liis  degree,  he  had  a  sermon  to  prepare  and 
deliver  before  the  university  and  the  bishop,  its  preparation  filled  him 
with  .some  dismay,  and  he  sent  his  plan  in  great  anxiety  to  his  brother, 
who  replied  reassuringly,  praising  the  subject,  making  suggestions  and 
predicting  a  successful  outcome.^-  Warton 's  biographer  reports  that 
one  university  sermon  Mon  him  much  praise,  and  he  praised  a  Latin 
sermon  of  his  which  he  had  seen  as  clear,  well-arranged  and  in  good 
Latin  style. '^^  The  two  sermons  among  his  papers  at  Winchester 
College  are  entirely  mediocre. 

If  Warton  was  not  distinguished  as  a  preacher,  he  seems  at  least 
to  have  been  satisfactory  to  the  members  of  his  charge  in  those  days  of 
fox-hunting,  port-drinking  and  even  more  negligent  parsons.  The 
people  of  Woodstock  long  remembered  him  with  affectionate  regard  as 
one  of  the  best  curates  who  ever  officiated  there. ^^     Certainly  he  was  not 

^'Modern  Kidlington.  This  living  was  given  him  by  George  Henry,  Earl  of 
Lichfield,  the  Chancellor  of  the  University,  Oct.  22,  1771.  See  Hist.  Kid.  ist  ed. 
p.  II. 

*'i768,  see  Anderson's  British  Poets,  13  vols.     London,  1795,  XI,  p.  1054. 

■*'i782.     Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  Ixxxii. 

""One  of  his  hearers  at  Woodstock  said,  'though  not  one  in  ten  could  under- 
stand half  he  said,  everybody  loved  him.'    Literary  Journal,  p.  601. 

''•Chalmers  had  two  sermons  that  he  often  preached,  but  neither  was  written 
by  him ;  one  was  a  printed  sermon ;  the  other,  in  an  old  hand,  was  thought  to  be 
his  father's.    Op.  cit.  p.  85,  note. 

°^  See  letters  of  Joseph  to  Thomas  Warton,  May  16  and  20,  1754,  Wooll,  Op. 
cit.  pp.  221  &  233.  The  second  letter  is  there  dated  1755,  obviously  an  error,  for 
it  was  evidently  written  just  after  the  other,  and  both  refer  to  Joseph's  removal 
from  Tynesdale  to  Tunworth,  in  1754. 

"^Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  cvii. 

'■'■''Ilis  easy  wit  and  good  humour  rendered  him  universally  acceptable;  and 
though  his  pulpit  oratory  does  not  appear  ever  to  have  entitled  him  to  particular  no- 
tice, many  are  still  alive  who  speak  of  him  with  more  regard  and  affection  than  of 
any  person  who  ever  officiated  there.  The  rector,  Mr.  Halloway,  though  certainly  not 
a  man  of  genius,  was  a  man  after  his  own  heart,  as  far  as  convivial  and  social 
habits  were  concerned ;  and  Saturday,  Sunday,  and  part  of  Monday  were  gener- 
ally spent  at  Woodstock,  in  the  most  agreeable  manner.'     Lit.  Jour.  p.  280. 


161]  LAST   YEARS  161 

inaccessible  to  the  members  of  his  flock,^^  and,  if  not  over-curious  as  to 
their  spiritual  welfare,  was  not  indifferent  to  their  temporal  interests, 
especially  of  such  as  were  poeticallly  inclined.  For  example,  he  took  a 
lively  interest  in  the  poetizing  of  young  John  Bennet,  the  son  of  the 
parish  clerk  at  Woodstock.'" 

In  his  later  years  Warton  found  his  pastoral  duties  more  and  more 
a  burden.  He  never  attempted  to  sen'e  his  charges  during  the  long 
vacations,  which  he  habitually  spent  with  his  brother  at  Winchester; 
and,  as  other  duties  and  interests  became  more  absorbing,  he  came  to 
depend  entirely  upon  an  auxiliary.  In  1787  he  abandoned  his  charge 
altogether  and  made  William  Mavor,  a  young  Scotch  schoolmaster  at 
Woodstock,  who  had  been  his  curate  at  Kiddingtou  for  some  time,  his 
'perpetual  Curate'  there. ^' 

Warton 's  curate  tells  a  story  of  his  connection  with  the  parish  at 
Kiddington  that  shows  his  generosity.  He  says  that  'after  dining  with 
him  one  Christmas  day  at  the  hospitable  mansion  of  the  late  Edward 
Gore,  Esq.  of  Kiddington,  Warton  beckoned  him  into  the  hall,  and 
pulling  out  his  purse,  thus  addressed  him;  "I  expected  to  have  received 
more  money  today.  Sir — I  shall  want  ten  pounds  myself  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  a  journey  to  London. — You  are  welcome  to  all  the  rest.  Sir — 
All  the  rest  Sir — I  ^^■isll  it  had  been  more"  '.'**     Probably  this  story 

'"'No  man  knew  better  how  to  unbend  than  Warton.  .  .  He  seemed  to  delight 
in  the  society  of  women  and  children  with  whom  he  could  talk  nonsense,  or  to 
associate  with  men  in  general  who  were  .  .  6011  vivanis,  wags,  or  punsters."     Ibid. 

^'See  supra. 

^'Two  letters  to  Mavor  record  this  transaction :  'I  beg  the  favour  of  you  to 
continue  your  services  for  me  at  Kiddington  till  the  second  Sunday  of  February 
next,  inclusive,  .\fter  that  time,  if  I  should  want  a  perpetual  Curate  at  Kidding- 
ton (which  I  believe  will  be  the  case,  and  of  which  I  will  give  you  due  Notice) 
I  should  wish  to  appoint  you  above  all  others.  But  I  beg  you  to  say  nothing  (at 
present)  to  the  Family  at  Kiddington  of  my  thoughts  of  a  perpetual  Curate.  I 
shall  see  Mr.  Gore  very  soon,  which  you  may  tell  him ;  and  that  I  have  engaged 
you  to  attend  the  Church  to  the  2d  Sunday  in  February,  as  above.  If  Bennet 
could  call  next  Saturday,  with  j'our  Account  up  to  last  Sunday,  I  will  return  the 
money  by  Him.    Oxon.  Nov.  26,  1787.' 

'The  Curacy  of  Kiddington  is  your's  for  the  next  twelve-months,  and  most 
probably  will  be  so  for  a  much  longer  time,  as  I  have  no  thought  at  present  of 
ever  serving  it  myself.  I  presume  you  have  no  objection  to  the  old  Terms  of 
Half  a  Guinea  a  Sunday.  In  case  of  a  Burial  on  week  days  (a  very  rare  Case) 
you  will  please  to  charge  me  a  [cro  (MS.  torn)]wn  each  time.  Fees  for  a  Marriage 
&c.,  are  to  be  your  own.  You  will  please  to  begin  on  next  Sunday.  Whenever 
you  wish  to  settle,  that  business  shall  immediately  be  done.  O.xon,  Jan.  28th, 
1788.'    Bodl.  MSS.  Montague  d.  18,  fols.  136  and  135. 

^^Literary  Journal^  p.  601. 


162  THOMAS  WARTON  [162 

can  be  dated  at  Christmas  1789,  just  before  Warton  's  death,  for  he  wrote 
to  Maloiic  from  Oxford,  Dceembfr  20th  of  tliat  year,  '  I  leave  this  place 
on  Tuesday,  and  return  27th  Instant.  A  letter,  during  that  time,  will 
find  me  at  Edward  Gore's  Esq  at  Kiddington  near  Enstone  Oxfordshire. 
I  hope  to  be  ill  Town  about  the  10th  of  January."" 

The  reliiKiuishmeiit  of  liis  pastoral  work  is  the  only  sign  Warton 
gave  of  decreasing  vigor,  if,  indeed,  this  is  to  be  regarded  as  a  concession 
to  waning  strength  rather  than  to  increasing  interests.  At  any  rate  he 
was  still  full  of  projects  and  surrounded  with  uncompleted  work  at  the 
time  of  his  tleath.  Daniel  Prince  described  his  rooms  at  Oxford  as 
literally  strewn  with  manuscripts  in  small  semblance  of  order, — ^the 
tables,  chairs,  window  seats  and  shelves  being  covered  with  papers — in 
such  a  fashion  as  to  show  that  the  occupant  was  interrupted  in  the  midst 
of  his  labours.""  Until  his  sixty-first  year  Warton 's  health  had  always 
been  extremely  vigorous.  He  w-as  then,  however,  attacked  by  gout.  In 
his  journal  for  1788  appears  this  brief  note,  'Saturday,  Aug.  23.  To 
Bath  to  Dr.  Wilder 's  Crescent,  Gout!""  He  did  not  stay  long  at  Bath, 
however,  and  was  as  busy  as  ever  the  next  year"-  and  more  sanguine  of 
liis  complete  recovery  than  were  his  friends."*  Two  or  three  weeks  before 
his  death  he  went  down  to  Woodstock  to  buy  a  horse,  and  rode  him  one 
morning  in  the  best  of  spirits,  entertaining  his  companion  meanwhile 
with  anecdotes  about  Woodstock  and  its  early  history.  Here  at  Wood- 
stock, wliile  at  a  gentleman's  table,  he  had  a  slight  paralytic  stroke  which 
affected  one  of  his  hands."''  The  second  and  fatal  stroke  came  suddenly. 
He  spent  the  evening  with  a  few  companions  in  the  Common  Room  in 
livelier  spirits  than  usual.  Suddenly,  however,  between  ten  and  eleven 
o'clock  he  was  seized  with  a  paralytic  stroke.  He  made  but  one  attempt 
to  speak,  when  he  was  thought  to  utter  the  name  of  his  friend  Price,  and 
relapsed  into  uneouscioiisness,  dying  the  next  afternoon  before  his 
brother  could  arrive  at  his  bedside.  He  died  May  21,  1790,  and  was 
buried  in  the  ante  chapel  of  his  college  on  the  twenty-seventh  with  the 
highest  academical  honours.  The  esteem  in  which  Warton  was  held  by 
the  whole  university  as  well  as  by  the  members  of  Trinity  College  was 
shown  by  the  unusual  honour  that  the  funeral  ceremony  w-as  attended, 
at  their  own  request,  by  the  Viee-Chancellor  of  the  University,  the  heads 

6»Oxon.  Decemb.  20th,  1789.    Brit.  Mus.  MSS.  Ad.  30375,  no.  15. 

""LiV.  Anec.  Ill,  p.  702. 

"'Winchester  Journals. 

"-See  his  letters  to  Malone,  just  quoted. 

"sMant,  Op.  cit.  p.  xcii. 

"*LiV.  Jour.  p.  603. 


163]  LAST   TEARS  163 

of  houses,  and  the  proctors.     His  grave  is  marked  by  a  plain  marble 
slab  with  a  simple  Latin  inscription.*" 

«■■  THOMAS  W.-XHTON, 

S.  T.  B.  &  S.  A.  S. 

Hujus  Collegii  Socius, 

Ecclesise  de  Cuddington 

In  Com.  Oxon.  Rector. 

Poetices  iteruni  Praslector. 

Historices  Prelector  Camden, 

Poeta  Laureatus, 

Obiit  2t.   Die   Maii, 

Anno  Domini  1790, 

>^tat.  63. 


CHAPTER   XII 
*  Conclusion. 

The  influence  of  Warton's  master  passion,  enthusiastic  love  of  the 
past,  is  apparent  in  all  his  work.  One  of  his  most  important  contribu- 
tions to  romantic  poetry-  was  the  revival  of  interest  in  mediaeval  life 
and  poetry.  The  re-editing  of  classical  authors  and  the  freshening  of 
interest  in  classical  literature  were  the  object  of  his  labours  as  professor 
of  poetry.  The  history  and  illustration  of  early  English  literature  were 
the  great  work  of  his  ripest  powers.  The  study  of  mediaeval  architect- 
ure was  the  pursuit  of  his  leisure.  Even  his  politics,  his  religion,  had 
a  backward  look ;  to  both  he  gave  the  loyalty  that  he  conceived  was  due 
to  institutions  upon  which  was  set  the  seal  of  a  noble  past. 

In  literature  Warton's  close  study  of  the  past  and  its  relation  to 
the  present  had  given  him  a  clearer  vision  into  the  future,  so  that  both 
his  poetry  and  his  criticism  have  a  forward  as  well  as  a  backward  reach. 
They  pointed  the  direction  of  progress  by  showing  the  beauties  of  the 
neglected  past,  the  artificialities  of  the  vaunted  present,  and  the  way 
poetry  was  to  be  reclaimed  by  a  return  to  the  earlier  traditions.  The 
same  love  of  the  past  applied  in  other  fields  was  productive  of  quite 
different  results;  the  line  of  progress  in  religion  and  politics  did  not  lie 
in  the  direction  of  a  return  to  mediaevalism.  Neither  Warton's  politi- 
cal adherence  nor  his  religious  beliefs,  therefore,  although  both  were 
the  result  of  the  same  love  of  the  past,  shows  the  romantic  spirit  of  revolt 
and  of  progress  that  makes  his  critical  theories  significant ;  they  looked 
backward  only,  and  had  no  prophetic  vision  of  the  future. 

And  the  limits  of  his  interest  were  singularly  narrow.  So  great 
was  his  versatility  within  his  own  limited  field,  so  thorough  his  com- 
mand of  all  its  divisions,  that  one  is  at  first  inclined  to  lose  sight  of  the 
extent  of  eighteenth  century  thought  and  interest  in  which  Warton  had 
no  share.  His  field  of  interest  was  almost  entirely  literary,  confined 
to  poetry,  criticism,  history.  In  an  age  of  theological  unrest,  of  des- 
perate attempts  to  reclaim  wavering  faiths  from  the  abyss  of  scepticism, 
of  pietistic  efforts  to  save  the  church  from  within  by  an  access  of 
spiritual  grace,  Warton  maintained  a  calm,  unreflecting  allegiance  to 
the  established  church  of  England,  without  any  indication  that  he  was 
aware  of  the  theological  problems  of  his  day.  He  was  even  more  negli- 
gent of  philosophical  thought.  The  idealism  of  Berkele.y,  the  scepticism 
of  Hume,  were  equally  outside  his  ken ;  philosophy  for  him  was  appar- 
ently comprised  in  Plato  and  Aristotle.     To  the  great  political  move- 

164 


165]  CONCLUSION  165 

ments  of  the  day,  in  both  their  theoretical  and  practical  aspects,  he 
was  likewise  indifferent.  Neither  Eousseau's  Social  Contract  nor  the 
thundering  of  the  French  Revolution,  neither  Paine 's  pampldets  and 
Burke's  speeches,  nor  the  progress  of  the  war  in  America  aroused  in 
him  any  interest  in  contemporary  events.  The  Oxford  don  kept  him- 
self secure  in  his  ivory  tower  from  the  encroachments  of  political  affairs. 

In  his  relations  with  the  church  Warton  showed  the  same  ardent 
entluisiasm  and  loyalty  that  he  felt  for  the  poets,  the  literature,  of  the 
past.  He  gloried  in  its  long  and  honourable  history  as  an  institution ; 
he  admired  the  dignity  and  solemnity  of  its  forms  of  worship ;  he 
enjoyed  the  beauty  of  its  ritual,  its  prayers,  its  music.  Tlie  established 
church  satisfied  the  loiigings  of  his  soul  and  delighted  his  aesthetic 
sense.  Warton  was  essentially  a  high-eliurehman ;  he  would  have  re- 
jected both  the  barrenness  of  tlie  Metliodist  form  of  worship  and  its 
personal  emotionalism  for  much  tlie  same  reason  that  he  objected  to  the 
popular  psalmody  used  in  many  cliurches,'  and  for  reasons  partly 
ffisthetic.  His  violent  antipathy  to  the  Puritans  and  Calvinists  is  more 
readily  explained  on  aesthetic  than  on  doctrinal  grounds.  He  coidd 
never  forgive  the  Puritans  the  ruinous  havoc  they  wrought  in  the 
beautiful  Gothic  churches  nor  the  check  given  to  the  progress  of  poetry 
by  their  narrow  opposition  to  all  literature  not  definitely  religious.^ 
All  his  works  aliound  in  bitter  references  to  'Oliver's  people,'-'  'Crom- 
well's intruders',*  'Calvin's  system  of  reformation',^  while  his  too  freely 
expressed  religious  prejudice  against  Puritanism  makes  a  real  blemish 
in  his  study  of  Milton. 

Warton 's  aesthetic  enjoyment  of  the  forms  of  worship  of  the  Eng- 
lish church  and  the  beauty  of  its  elioral  service  was  very  closely 
akin  to  his  appreciation  of  Gothic  art.  There  seems  to  have  been  a  vein 
of  aesthetic  sensibility  in  this  modest  Oxford  don  who,  without  being 
melancholy,  delighted  in  'cloyster's  pale',  the  'ruined  abbey's  moss- 
grown  piles',  and  ' sequester 'd  isles  of  the  deep  dome';  who  was  overcome 
with  emotion  when  the  Gothic  sculptures  of  New  College  altar,  which 
had  been  walled  up  early  in  Elizabeth's  reign,  were  displaj'ed  to  the 
public  f  and  whose  I'emark  that  '  taste  and  imagination  make  more  anti- 
quarians than  the  world  is  willing  to  allow'  applies  well  to  himself. 

^See  Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  III,  p.  168,  172-3,  194. 

-Obscn'atioiis  on  the  Faerie  Queene,  II,  p.  279,  and  Hist.  Eng.  Poetry,  III,  461. 

3Lee  MSS. 

*Spec.  Hist.  Oxford.  2nd  ed.  p.  12. 

=^Lee  MSS. 

'Daniel  Prince,  who  sat  near  Warton  on  that  occasion,  said,  'Poor  Thomas 
fetched  such  sighs  as  I  could  not  have  thought  he  could  breathe'.  Lit.  Aiiec.  Ill, 
p.  699. 


166  THOMAS  WARTON  [166 

In  politics  Warton  was  a  Tory,  like  that  other  great  medisevalist 

wlioiri  lie  in  many  ways  resi'mblud,  an  ardent  atllierent  of  institu- 
tions whose  history  was  long  and  glorious.  His  political  interest,  such 
as  it  was,  was  determined  by  his  absorbing  interest  in  the  past.  By 
natural  bent  and  by  inheritance  his  sympathies  were  Jacobite,  though 
h(!  took  no  part  in  the  Jacobite  cause,  and,  as  laureate,  acquiesced  in 
honouring  tlie  unromantie  Georges  as  the  modern  heirs  of  Alfred  and 
the  Edwards.  Modern  political  problems,  like  tliose  of  religion,  did  not 
come  near  him. 

The  second  great  pa.ssion  of  Warton 's  life,  and  almost  a  corollary 
of  the  first,  was  his  loyalty  to  Oxford.  And  Oxford  set  the  limits  of 
his  practical  interest  as  the  love  of  the  past  determined  his  literary 
pursuits.  Its  little  round  of  term-time  and  vacation,  with  the  occa- 
sional diversion  of  an  encaniia,  was  varied  only  by  the  long  vacations 
spent  at  Wincliester — where  most  of  his  writing  was  done,  the  sum- 
mer tours  to  architectural  ruins,  and  occasional  very  brief  visits  to 
London  to  arrange  for  the  publication  of  his  books,  and  to  look  in  on 
his  literary  friends.  As  a  result  of  this  narrowing  of  interest  most  of 
Warton 's  work,  even  his  poetry,  has  a  decidedly  academic  flavour. 
While  it  never  exactly  reeks  of  the  lamp,  it  is  impregnated  with  the 
atmosphere  in  which  it  was  produced.  Warton 's  early  poetry,  both 
serious  and  humorous,  is  strikingly  academic,  from  the  Triumph  of  Isis 
to  tiie  Progress  of  Discontent  and  the  Panegyric  on  Oxford  Ale.  In  his 
later  verse  this  quality  is  less  apparent  and  shows  itself  only  in  the 
general  determination  of  thought  and  interest. 

Although  Warton 's  love  of  the  past,  his  appreciation  of  nature,  and 
his  critical  method  show  that  he  belonged  at  least  as  much  to  the  early 
nineteenth  as  to  the  eighteenth  century,  he  was  without  the  uncontrolled 
emotionalism  and  the  spirit  of  revolt  that  marked  nianj'  writers  of  the 
next  century ;  he  had  the  characteristic  temper  of  his  own  time, — its 
comi)osure,  its  restraint,  its  sound  common  sense.  Ilis  mind  was  nor- 
mal, healthy,  well  poised,  free  from  self-searching  and  introspection;  he 
was  disturbed  by  no  perplexing  problems  of  his  relation  to  the  universe, 
no  conflict  between  mind  and  heart;  he  seems  to  have  passed  through 
no  'Sturm  und  Drang'  period.  He  felt  no  imperative  neeil  of  self- 
revelation  ;  he  kept  no  personal  diary,  nor  poured  out  his  soul  in 
voluminous  correspondence, — his  letters,  which  were  probably  never 
very  numerous,  are  brief  and  self-contained ;  his  poetry,  too,  is  re- 
strained rather  than  fidl  of  feeling.  Warton 's  very  emotions  were 
objective :  they  centered  in  his  enthusiastic  love  for  the  past,  his  college, 
his  friends,  and  his  family.  He  w-as  not,  however,  cold  nor  unrespon- 
sive; on  the  contrary  he  frequently  gave  evidence  of  deep  feelings,  of 
violent  prejudices,  of  warm  attachments,  but  he  had  alwavs  the  control 


167]  CONCLUSION  167 

of  them.  He  seems  to  have  differed  much  in  this  respect  from  his 
brother,  who  was  demonstrative  and  emotional.  He  frequently  revealed 
the  penscroso  mood  in  his  poetry-,  but  it  was  always  serene  and  con- 
templative, as  in  Milton,  rather  than  subjective  and  gloomy,  as  in  many 
of  his  imitators.  He  was  susceptible  to  beauty  in  nature,  but  it  evoked 
from  him  no  gushes  of  sentiment.  He  felt  strongly  the  wonderful,  the 
mystical,  beauties  of  Gothic  art,  but  the  emotions  they  aroused  were 
manly  and  composed. 

Wart  on  was  said  by  an  acquaintance  to  have  been  'eminently  hand- 
some' in  his  youth,  and  even  later,  when  sedentary  habits,  port,  and 
good  living  had  made  his  features  heavy  and  his  frame  unwieldy,  he 
was  still  'remarkably  well-looking'."  But  the  editor  of  the  Probationary 
Odes  described  him  as  a  'little,  tliick,  squat,  red-faced  man.''  The  truth 
probably  lies  between  the  opinion  of  an  admiring  friend  and  the  carica- 
ture of  a  satirist.  His  portrait  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds^  in  his  best 
manner  hangs  in  the  Common  Room  at  Trinity  College,  and  reveals 
a  countenance  somewhat  heavy  and  inert ;  the  forehead  wide  and  full ; 
small,  clear  blue  eyes,  deep  set  under  straight  heavy  brows  that  some- 
how hide  their  quiet  force  from  the  casual  observer ;  a  thin-lipped  mouth 
redeemed  from  coldness  by  expressive  curves,  the  downward  droop  of 
one  corner  balanced  by  a  humorous  upward  turn  at  the  other;  and  the 
bright  healthy  colour  of  the  well-fed  Englishman.  The  face  and  figure 
are  more  suggestive  of  the  'bon  vivant'  than  the  poet;  the  stolid,  idle 
clergyman  than  the  enthusiastic  antiquary ;  the  indolent  Oxford  don 
than  the  industrious  scholar.  A  comparison  of  his  rugged  features  with 
his  brother's  almost  feminine  smoothness  suggests  the  contrast  between 
the  two  men.  Joseph  was  painted  in  a  full-bottomed  wig  and  academic 
gown  and  band ;  Thomas  in  a  bob  and  his  ordinary  work  jacket,  none 
too  tidily  arranged.  Urbanity  and  sensibility  characterize  one  counte- 
nance ;  reserve  and  seriousness,  the  other. 

Equal  differences  distinguished  the  two  brothers  in  their  social 
intercourse.  Joseph  was  fond  of  society,  affable,  communicative,  an 
addition  to  any  society ;  Tliomas  was  awkward,  shy,  silent,  except  in  the 
company  of  his  intimates.  In  his  earlier  daj'S  Thomas  Warton  seems 
to  have  been  much  fonder  of  society  than  later  when  his  friendships 
and  habits  were  formed.  His  natural  shyness  was  increased  by  studious 
habits  and  years  of  pretty  close  application  to  work,  and  he  came  to 
limit  his  social  intercourse  more  and  more  to  those  friends  whose  tastes 
were  quite  congenial  with  his  own.  He  was  particularly  averse  to  the 
society  of  strangers,  especially  those  of  a  literary  turn.^     Within  his 

"Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  cv-cvi. 

'Exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy  in  1784. 


168  THOMAS  WARTON  [168 

own  coUfgc  gates  he  was  always  sociable,  gracious  in  entertaining  his 
friends,  fond  of  lingering  with  the  other  Fellows  over  their  evening 
eako-s  and  ale  in  the  Common  Room,  but  he  could  seldom  be  prevailed 
upon  to  dine  with  his  friends  in  other  colleges.  The  unanimous  testi- 
mony of  those  who  knew  him  well  was  that  his  conversation  was  singu- 
larly fascinating,  easy,  and  lively,  'enriched  with  anecdote,  and  pointed 
witii  wit',  so  that  he  was  the  life  of  those  social  gatherings  in  which 
he  found  himself  thoroughly  at  home." 

Socially,  however,  Thomas  Warton  fell  on  evil  days.  Although 
naturally  genial  and  fond  of  congenial  society,  he  was  repelled  by  the 
formality  and  artificiality  of  the  polite  society  of  his  day.  When  Fanny 
Burney  at  the  height  of  her  pojiularity  was  invited  to  dine  with  the 
Wartons  and  some  other  distinguished  men,  she  gave  in  her  journal  this 
unfavourable  account  of  Thomas  Warton:  'Mr.  Tom  Warton,  the  poetry 
hi.storiographer,  looks  unformed  in  liis  manners,  and  awkward  in  his 
gestures.  He  joined  not  one  word  in  the  general  talk,  and,  but  for  my 
father,  who  was  his  neighbour  at  dinner,  and  entered  into  a  tete-a-tete 
conversatiou  with  him,  he  would  never  have  opened  his  mouth  after  the 
removal  of  the  second  course.""  It  is  certain  that  Thomas  Warton  was 
not  so  fond  of  the  society  of  young  ladies  as  was  his  more  susceptible 
brother;  he  probably  had  not  read  Miss  Burney 's  lively  but  artificial 
novels,  was  unable  to  indulge  her  in  the  compliments  and  deference  to 
wliieh  she  was  accustomed,  and  felt  that  he  could  do  little  else  than  fall 
silent  in  a  company  of  which  she  was  the  presiding  genius. 

Yet  Warton  was  not  without  social  intercourse  among  literary  men 
like  himself,  scholars  and  poets.  He  became  a  member  of  the  Literary 
Club  in  1782,  and  numbered  among  his  friends  some  of  the  most  distin- 
guished men  of  his  day  both  at  Oxford  and  London.  Judging  from 
the  letters  of  his  London  friends  and  their  complaints  of  his  neglect, 
he  might  have  spent  considerable  time  in  a  round  of  pleasant  visits. 
Spence,  who  had  succeeded  Warton 's  father  as  professor  of  poetry  at 
Oxford,  besouglit  the  charity  of  a  visit  in  the  course  of  his  rambles ;" 
Shenstone  entertained  him  and  Lord  Dounegal  at  the  Leasowes,  and 
received  as  a  souvenir  of  the  visit  a  copy  of  the  Inscriptionum;^-  Wal- 
pole  was  flattered  by  notice  of  his  work,  and  begged  the  favour  of  a 
visit  at  Strawberry  Hill  with  every  antiquarian  inducement  he  could 
offer,'^  and  a  literary  friendship  and  exchange  of  favours  continued  for 

°Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  xcix. 

■"d'.^rblay:    Diary  and  Letters,  ed.  1891,  I.  p.  505. 

"See  Wooll,  Op.  cit.  p.  227. 

•^Shenstone's  Works,  3  vols.  Loondon,  1777,  III,  p.  284. 

i-nVooll,  Op.  cit.  pp.  281-3. 


169]  CONCLUSION  169 

some  time.  Warton's  opinion  and  criticism  were  sought  by  many:  Julius 
Miekle  begged  his  approval  of  a  play  as  the  means  of  securing  its 
acceptance  by  Garrick,"  who  confirmed  Miekle 's  estimate  of  the  weight 
of  Warton's  opinion ;'°  Lord  Lyttelton  aspired  to  his  approbation;'* 
and  Gerard  Hamilton  consulted  him  in  regard  to  a  secretary  to  succeed 
Burke. ^'  In  the  prosecution  of  his  literary  labours,  as  has  been  men- 
tioned, he  received  generous  and  ready  aid  from  Gai-rick,  Gray,  Percy, 
Bowie,  Steevens,  Farmer,  and  many  others;  and  the  Bishop  of  Glouces- 
ter and  Dr.  Balguy  were  more  active  in  behalf  of  his  candidacy  for  the 
professorship  of  history  than  he  was  himself.  Warton  was  easily 
among  the  'lions'  of  Oxford.  Hannah  More  was  delighted  at  the  pros- 
pect of  dining  with  him  and  Johnson  and  'whatever  else  is  most  learned 
and  famous  in  this  uuiversitj''.^*  Two  Cambridge  gentlemen,  intending 
to  come  to  Oxford  to  have  a  look  at  'the  Lions',  wrote  beseechingly  to 
Gough  for  letters — 'alas!  we  fear  Tom  Warton  is  at  Winchester'.'-' 

Many  of  Warton's  friends  were  scholars  and  antiquarians,  men  to 
whom  he  was  attracted  by  their  interest  in  some  of  the  literary  subjects 
in  which  he  delighted.  Among  them  were  Toup,  the  classical  scholar, 
who  helped  with  Theocritus;  Bowie,  the  translator  of  Don  Quixote; 
Gough,  who  consulted  him  on  antiquarian  matters ;-"  Wise,  the  archeolo- 
gist  at  EUsfield  and  Radclivian  librarian,  whose  valuable  books  and 
personal  suggestions  were  always  at  Warton's  service;  Malone,  whose 
careful  scholarship  made  him  a  congenial  spirit,  and  whom  Warton 
assisted  in  the  preparation  of  his  edition  of  Shakespeare ;  and  Price,  the 
Bodleian  librarian,  whom  he  induced  to  remove  from  Jesus  to  Trinity 
College, -"^  and  who  became  perhaps  his  most  intimate  friend.  This 
industrious  and  capable  but  not  very  original  man  apparently  enjoyed 
nothing  more  than  performing  little  tasks  of  research  for  his  friends, 
looking  up  manuscripts  and  books  in  the  library,  having  copies  of  draw- 
ings made,  etc.  He  was  vastly  flattered  by  Mr.  Warton's  friendship, 
and  so  grieved  at  his  death  that  he  could  not  be  prevailed  upon  to  speak 
of  him  nor  to  contribute  to  his  memoirs.^- 

Warton's  most  distinguished  friend  was,  of  course.  Dr.  Johnson, 
the  great  representative  of  the  eighteenth  century  classicism  and  com- 

"/6i(/.,  p.  379. 

^'^Ibid.,  p.  380. 

^^Ibid.,  p.  322. 

^''Ibid.,  pp.  299  and  305. 

^^Mcmoirs,  4  vols.  London  1834,  I,  p.  262. 

^^Lit.  Altec.  VIII,  pp.  596-7. 

-oibid.,  VI.  p.  180. 

-^Lit.  lUus.  VI.  p.  474. 

^-Lit.  Alice.  Ill,  p.  703. 


170  THOMAS  WARTON  [1"0 

monsi'iise  in  wliicK  Warton  shared  largely.  Their  early  friendship  was 
rajiid  and  elosi'  wliile  tlicy  cxohaiigred  lit<'rary  favours  and  plans.-'  And 
Dr.  Johnson's  tastes  oceasioiially  jumped  with  Warton 's  more  revolu- 
tionary ones,  as  when  he  condemned  the  'cant  of  those  who  judge  by 
principles  rather  than  perception',-'*  and  when  he  indulged  a  youth- 
ful fondness  for  old  romances  by  choosing  an  old  Spanish  romance  for 
his  regular  reading  iluring  a  visit  to  Bishop  Percy.-''  But  however 
well  they  agreed  in  details,  their  ideals  were  wide  apart.  Between  their 
theories  of  criticism  and  poetry  there  was  almost  the  whole  gulf  that 
separates  the  eigliteenth  and  inneteenth  centuries,  that  separates  Addi- 
son and  Steele  from  llazlitt,  and  The  Shepherd's  Week  from  Michael; 
and  it  was  scarcely  to  be  bridged  by  an  exchange  of  visits  and  notes 
upon  Shakespeare.  Their  principal  interests,  too,  were  quite  different. 
Joluisoii  had  no  taste  for  accurate  scholarship,  and  having  won  a  secure 
reputation  with  his  dictionary,  was  disposed  to  yield  somewhat  to  natu- 
ral indolence,  to  consume  much  of  his  time  in  the  literary  conversations 
for  which  he  is  justly  famous,  and  in  literary  work  which  is  rather  the 
fruit  of  general  reading,  of  philosophical  reflection,  and  of  personal 
opinion  than  of  exact  and  laborious  research.  Warton,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  primarily  a  scholar,  and  although  he  admired  Johnson  as  a 
'lexicographer,  a  philosopher  and  an  essayist',-"  he  could  not  but  dis- 
agree with  him  in  important  matters  of  taste  and  critical  judgment,  and 
scorn  tlie  superficiality  of  liis  scholarship.  The  real  break  in  their 
friendship,  however,  probably  came  when  Johnson  touched  his  friend's 
most  sensitive  point  bj'  ridiculing  his  poetry  for  its  laborious  and  use- 
less resurrection  of  the  obsolete.'-'  Johnson's  protest  that  he  still  loved 
'the  fellow  dearly'  for  all  lie  laughed  at  him,  was  in  vain;  their  friend- 
ship never  recovered  its  former  warmth.  Afterwards  Johnson  is  said 
to  have  lamented  'with  tears  in  his  eyes,  that  the  Wartons  had  not 
called  upon  him  for  the  last  four  years'  and  to  have  declared  that 
'Tom  Warton  was  tlie  oidy  man  of  genius,  whom  he  knew,  without  a 
heart."-" 

There  were  few  contemporary  poets  who  were  altogether  congenial 
with  Warton  and  his  romantic  tastes.    Although  his  relations  with  ila- 

-'See  supra  p.  68ff. 

-*Life  of  Pope,  Johnson's  Lives,  Hill  ed.  Ill,  p.  248. 

'-•■'Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson,  Hill  ed.  I,  p.  49. 

="Mant,  Op.  cit.  I,  p.  xx.xix. 

='Warton's  poetry  was  his  dearest  literary  offspring,  and  he  could  not  bear 
ridicule  of  it.  See  Lit.  Aiiec.  Ill,  p.  703.  For  Johnson's  criticism,  see  supra  p.  — 
and  Boswell's  Johnson,  III,  p.  158,  note  3. 

-*Mant,  Op.  cit.  I,  p.  xxxix. 


171]  CONCLUSION  171 

sou  were  cordial  enough  after  their  first  poetical  passage-at-arms,-® 
Warton  never  held  him  in  much  esteem,  and  described  his  facile  but 
uninspired  style  as  'buckram'.^"  While  Warton  greatly  admired 
Gray,  with  whom  he  had  many  tastes  in  common,  their  relations 
were  formally,  rather  than  warmly,  friendly.  In  Collins,  Joseph  War- 
ton's  school-fellow  at  Winchester,  the  Wartons  had  a  friend  of  long 
standing  and  dear,  whose  poetical  tastes  also  were  congenial.'^  In  Col- 
lins's  poetry  they  recognized  those  poetical  qualities  they  so  much 
admired,  which  they  could  exalt  in  criticism  if  they  could  not  emulate 
in  their  own  verse.  Thomas  Warton  frequentlj-  visited  CoUius  at  Chi- 
chester where  they  talked  over  literary  plans, — Collins 's  history  of  the 
revival  of  learning  and  Warton 's  Spenser,  and  turned  over  the  pages 
of  old  authors  they  both  loved  in  Collins 's  valuable  library,  where 
Warton  was  already  collecting  material  for  his  history.  A  few  years 
later,  when  Collins 's  health  failed  completely,  he  was  visited  and  ten- 
derly cared  for  by  Warton  both  at  Oxford  and  at  Chichester,  after  he 
had  become  too  feeble  for  conversation  and  was  but  the  wreck  of  the 
once  admired  friend. 

On  his  holidays  Warton  indulged  himself  somewhat  in  society  not 
altogether  literarj-  and  formal,  and  delighted  in  it.  He  enjoyed  the 
hospitality  of  quondam  Oxford  friends,  now  country  parsons,  who  must 
have  been  delighted  to  welcome  a  college  fellow  of  such 

'discerning 
Both  in  good  liquor  and  good  learning,' 

and  to  share  with  him  the  best  cheer  that  their  comfortable  country 
livings  afforded.  On  these  vacations,  too,  he  may  have  had  an  oppor- 
tiinity  to  indulge  that  fondness  for  low  society,  for  drinking  ale  in 
common  taverns,  that  distressed  his  dignified  fellow  dons,  who  had  no 
hankering  for  society  less  formally  polite  than  their  college  intercourse 
offered.  His  geniality  and  friendliness  on  these  occasions  no  doubt 
aroused  an  interest  in  his  architectural  researches,  facilitated  his  access 
to  the  village  church,  the  ruined  castle  or  abbey  of  the  neighborhood, 
brought  to  light  any  relics  of  antiquity  that  might  be  treasured  in  the 
village,  and  even  disposed  the  vicar,  parish  boards,  or  country  squires 
to  look  ^vith  more  favour  on  his  suggestions  to  preserve  their  ancient 
treasures  from  further  dilapidation. 

Warton 's  visits  to  Winchester,  also,  seem  to  have  been  attended 

^^Warton's  Triumph  of  Isis  was  a  reply  to  Mason's  Isis. 

^"Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  x.\ii  and  Boswell's  Johnson,  IV,  315. 

^'Collins  and  Joseph  Warton  published  their  first  odes  in  the  same  year,  1746, 
and  the  latter's  were  more  successful  at  the  time.  Collins's  Ode  on  Popular  Super- 
stitions was  published  anonymously  in  1788  with  a  dedication  to  the  Wartons. 


172  THOMAS  WARTON  [172 

witli  some  social  pleasure.  The  neighborhood  was  regularly  used  for 
rt'triinciital  camps,  wliieh  both  the  Wartons  were  very  fond  of  visiting. 
Military  siglits,  tlie  music  of  fife  and  drum  had  a  singidar  charm  for 
both  of  them,  and  martial  music  was  always  sure  to  set  Thomas's  blood 
a-tiiigliiig.'=  Consequently  Warton's  letters  to  Price  during  his  vaca- 
tions at  Winchester  have  often  some  echo  of  militar>'  affairs: — he  has 
been  inspecting  the  regiments  in  camp  at  Portsmoutli  and  Plymouth 
in  the  course  of  a  'long  camping  tour';"  he  has  dined  so  often  with 
Lord  Berkeley,  head  of  the  South-Gloucester,  that,  while  he  declared 
he  had  no  'presentiments'  of  gout,  he  hopes  he  may  escape  it  and  'have 
a  few  gallops  with  the  Duke  of  Beaufort's  dogs'  at  his  return  to  Ox- 
ford;" he  complains  of  tlie  dullness  of  his  study  at  Winchester  'without 
drumming  and  fifing' ;"  or  he  is  going  to  dine  and  drink  champagne 
with  Hans  Stanley,  which  he  fears  will  'throw  him  out  a  little'."" 

Besides  these  martial  delights  that  attended  the  long  annual  visits 
at  Winchester,  Warton  enjoyed  with  undignified  freedom  the  society  of 
his  brother's  pupils.  More  than  one  amusing  tale  is  told  of  his  partici- 
pation in  their  tasks  and  frolics.  One  one  occasion,  it  is  said,  he  over- 
reached himself  in  preparing  a  lad 's  exercise  for  him,  or  the  boy,  in  order 
to  escape  the  flogging  he  was  as  apt  to  get  for  the  poet  laureate's 
verses  as  for  his  own,  gave  a  wrong  report  of  the  number  of  'faults' 
he  was  in  the  habit  of  making;  the  Doctor  suspected  the  deception  and 
administered  p\inishment  to  the  real  author  of  the  verses.  Summoning 
the  boy  into  his  studj'  after  school,  he  sent  also  for  Mr.  Warton  and  had 
the  exercise  read  for  his  approval.  'Don't  you  think  it  worth  half  a 
crown?'  asked  the  Doctor.  Mr.  Warton  assented.  'Well  then,  you 
shall  give  the  boy  one.'"  On  another  occasion  when  he  was  joining  the 
boys  in  a  raid  upon  the  buttery,  the  sharp-nosed  Doctor  descended  upon 
them  in  wrath  hurrying  his  brother  with  the  rest  to  the  refuge  of  the 
nearest  dark  corner,  whence  he  was  drawn  forth  in  his  turn  by  the 
dumbfounded  Doctor. 

Even  at  Oxford  Warton  seems  to  have  indulged  his  fondness 
for  low  society,  for  public  sights  and  spectacles,  though  with  some  little 
circumspection,  owing  to  the  dignity  of  his  position.  His  fellow  dons 
were  sufficiently  shocked  when  he  appeared  on  the  river  enjoying  his 

'^Warton's  journals  show  the  same  weakness  for  military  life.  In  1775  he 
records  a  visit  to  Gen.  Oglethorpe,  and  in  1779  a  stop  'at  the  Duke  of  Beaufort's 
at  Jennings,  two  Miles  from  Camp.'  Winchester  MSS. 

^^Letter  to  Price,  quoted  in  Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  Ixxviii. 

3*Mant,  Op.  cit.  p.  Ixxvii. 

^"Ibid.,  p.  Ixxvi. 
^^Ibid.,  p.  cv. 


173]  CONCLUSION  173 

pipe  with  the  water-men,  and  it  was  related  by  his  biographer  as  a  great 
scandal  that  he  attended  an  execution  disguised  in  the  dress  of  a  carter.^' 
A  storj'  is  told  of  him  that,  though  probably  not  quite  true,  at  least 
indicates  that  a  taste  for  unconventional  amusements  was  generally 
ascribed  to  him.  He  once  could  not  be  found  when  he  should  have 
been  pi'epariug  a  Latin  speech  for  a  public  occasion,  and  his  friends, 
knowing  that  he  never  could  resist  following  martial  music,  hit  upon 
the  scheme  of  calling  him  forth  b}^  sending  along  the  streets  of  Oxford 
a  drum  and  fife.  Before  long  the  professor  issued  from  a  favourite 
tavern  'with  cutty  pipe  in  mouth,  greasy  gown,  and  dirty  band,  and 
began  strutting  after  the  martial  music,  to  the  tune  of  "Give  the  King 
his  own  again ".'^'  A  similar  taste  is  indicated  by  Daniel  Prince's 
fragmentary  account  of  the  Jelly-bag  Society;  the  meeting-place  was 
announced  by  the  irresistible  beating  of  a  drum,  and  Warton  was  sure 
to  attend  'with  his  jelly -bag  cap  on."*"  But  although  the  society  existed 
for  eight  or  ten  j-ears,  no  letter-writing  gossip  has  seen  fit  to  tell  more 
of  its  meetings,  who  its  members  were,  nor  the  object  and  nature  of  the 
society.  These  anecdotes  of  personal  eccentricities — whether  true  or 
false — are  just  what  we  should  expect  of  the  author  of  the  Companion 
to  the  Guide,  and  editor — and  chief  contributor — to  the  Oxford  Sau- 
sage, and  they  make  the  author  of  the  Observations  on  the  Faerie 
Quecnc  and  the  History  of  English  Poetry  more  likable  and  human. 

But  such  amusements  cannot  have  wasted  much  time  in  so  busy 
and  productive  a  life  as  Warton 's.  The  stocky,  red-cheeked  Oxford 
don  gave  a  life-time  of  'academic  leisure'  to  scholarly  pursuits.  The 
intervals  of  lectures  and  pupils,  of  pastoral  duties  and  college  exercises, 
Warton  devoted  to  his  private  M'ork,  writing  and  reading  in  his  own 
studj-  at  Trinity  or  in  the  congenial  Gothic  atmosphere  of  Duke 
Humplirey's  Ward  overlooking  Exeter  Gardens.  His  days,  though 
busy,  must  have  been  somewhat  monotonous;  j^et  in  their  well-ordered 
monotony  grew  slowly  and  steadily  his  contributions  to  the  knowledge 
of  his  day  and  ours.  It  was  his  custom,  said  Huntingford,  who  knew 
him  well  both  at  Oxford  and  at  Winchester,  to  rise  moderately  early;*' 
this  enabled  him  to  do  a  half  day's  work  before  the  sleepy  college  awoke 
to  life,  and  give  him  leisure  to  stroll  about  and  chat  with  his  friends 
with  every  appearance  of  indolence  and  ease.  He  regularly  spent  some 
time  each  day  in  his  favourite  walks  along  the  Cherwell  in  meditation 

^^Ibid.  p.  ciii. 

^^Hartley  Coleridge :  Lives  of  Northern   Worthies,  3  vols.  London,   1852,  II, 
p.  264. 

^''Lit.  Anec.  Ill,  p.  702. 
*iMant,  Op.  cit.  p.  xcvii. 


174  THOMAS  WARTON  [174 

anil  in  enjoyment  of  the  lovely  scene.  'Under  the  mask  of  indolence', 
says  tl>e  Bkxjraphkal  Dictionary,  'no  man  was  more  busy:  his  mind 
was  ever  on  tlie  wing  in  search  of  some  literary  prey.'''-' 

Warton's  success  in  ]iroducing  critical  ami  historical  work  greatly 
in  advance  of  his  age  is  thus  partly  accounted  for  by  his  persistent  and 
intelligent  devotion  to  his  work  and  the  constant  enthusiasm  which 
inspired  and  guided  its  operations.  If,  as  Johnson  said,  Thomson  saw 
everything  in  a  poetical  light  through  the  medium  of  his  favourite 
pursuit,  so  "Warton  saw  all  things  in  the  light  of  his  enthusiasm  for  the 
past;  he  subjected  all  things  to  a  careful  scrutiny  to  determine  their 
relation  to  his  consuming  interest  in  antiquities  chiefly  literary.     He  )| 

seems  to  have  been  impressed  very  early  by  the  enormous  field   open  ' 

to  the  research  of  the  scholar,  and  though  at  times  confused  by  the 
very  multiplicity  of  matter  and  unable  to  distinguish  unerringly  the 
gold  from  the  dross,  he  never  abandoned  this  pursuit  nor  abated  his 
interest.     Modern  scholars,  whose  origijial  research  is  now  necessarily  | 

somewhat  limited  in  extent  because  Warton  and  his  successors  can-  | 

vassed  the  large  field  so  widely,  have  frequently  spoken  with  scorn  and 
condescension  of  Warton 's  superficiality  and  inaccuracy  in  his  treat- 
ment of  a  field  too  large  for  any  ou(!  man ;  but  let  them  conceive,  if 
they  will,  the  ever-growing  delight  and  fascination  of  advancing  into 
the  almost  unexplored  wilderness  of  English  literature  from  the  eleventh 
to  the  seventeenth  centuries,  with  no  restrictions  and  no  limitations 
save  those  of  time  and  strength  and  the  accessibility  of  material — rare 
black-letter  texts,  first  editions,  and  unedited,  even  unread,  manu- 
scripts; in  this  scholars'  paradise — and,  it  must  be  added,  with  no 
guide,  and  in  the  face  of  eighteenth  century  prejudice  and  disap- 
proval— what  modern  scholar  could  have  produced  anything  more  val- 
uable than  the  Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  and  the  History  of 
English  Poetry;  and  how  many  would  be  (and  are)  proud  to  have  done  < 

much  less! 

The  vigorous  personality  of  this  eighteenth  century  poet-scholar  is 
not  without  a  strong  appeal  to  the  modern  imagination.  One  seems  at 
times  to  catch  glimpses  of  him  about  his  favourite  haunts.  In  his  study 
at  Trinity  he  sits  before  a  plain  oak  desk  piled  with  rare  and  curious  old 
folios — the  dusty  tomes  he  loved  to  peruse — and  littered  with  many  lit- 
tle notebooks  of  heavy  rough  paper  in  gay  marbled  pasteboard  covers. 
There  is  a  bottle  of  port  and  a  glass  upon  the  mantel-piece,  and  upon  a 
small  table,  whereon  too  are  many  books,  the  tea-things  that  the  bed- 
maker  has  not  yet  removed.  The  room  is  untidily  strewn  with  coats  and 
caps,  riding-boots  and  spurs,  old  coins,  keys,  and  pipes,  and  everywhere 

*-lbid.,  p.  xcix. 


175]  CONCLUSION  175 

more  and  more  books.  The  scholar  himself  is  not  quite  clearly  discern- 
ible through  the  blue  haze  of  tobacco  smoke ;  but  ho  has  a  heavy  awkward 
figure  and  looks  as  untidy  as  his  surroundings  in  his  shiny,  wrinkled 
jacket,  his  rumpled  neck-cloth,  and  his  wig  too  mueli  over  one  ear.  When 
the  eager  dreamer  woidd  peer  into  the  thoughtful  eyes,the  figure  vanishes 
and.  still  pursued  in  fancy,  reappears,  a  solitary  traveler  jogging  along 
the  tortuous  windings  of  tlie  River  Wye  upon  a  steady  roadster  as 
stur.ly  as  himself.  Alternately  enjoying  the  Welsh  scene  and  losing  him- 
self in  meditation,  the  rider  turns  from  the  river  road  and  winds  his  way 
along  the  hillside  to  the  castle  ruins  that  crown  it.  Here  he  stops  to 
admire  the  fine  view  of  wooded  cliffs  and  peaceful  valley  before  he 
crosses  the  half-filled  moat  and  passes  under  the  rusty  old  port-cullis  to 
survey  the  Norman  tower  rising  stoutly  strong  above  the  scanty  ruins  of 
the  later  castle  which  surrounds  it.  And  here  we  leave  him  at  the  close 
of  day  trying  to  decipher  an  almost  oblit<?rated  inscription  upon  the 
cliapel  wall — oblivious  of  the  flight  of  time  in  his  devotion  to  his  own 
dream  of  a  vanished  past. 


APPENDIX   A. 

The  possible  connection  of  Thomas  Warton  with  the  Wartons  of 
Beverley  is  shown  by  an  excerpt  from  the  AVharton  MSS.  in  the  Bod- 
leian Library,  14  f.  12  b.  There  is  no  direct  proof  tliat  the  Francis 
Warton  who  was  born  at  Redness  is  the  Francis  Warton  of  Breamore 
who  was  Thomas  Warton 's  great  grandfather. 

Michael  Warton  of  Beverley  Park 


Sir  Michael  Warton  of      Edward 


Laurence  of  Redness 


Laurence  of 

Francis 

3  other 

Wellingley  d. 

sons  and 

1691 

3  daus. 

Beverley,   kn.   d.    1655 
Michael  Warton  of  Beverley 

F'rancis  Warton   Breamore,   Hants. 

Anthony  Warton  of  Godalming,  Surrey,  1650-1715 

Thomas  Warton  of  Basingstoke,  Hants.  1690-1745 

—  Elizabeth,  2d  dau.  of  John  Richardson,  of  Dunsfield,  Surrey. 

J  I  I 

Joseph  Jane  Thomas 

See  Joseph  Foster:    Alutnni  Oxonienses,  1500-1714,  vol.  IV,  1577. 


176 


APPENDIX    B. 

A  Bibliography  of  the  Printed  Sources  op  Warton's 
History  of  English  Poetry. 

In  compiling  this  list  of  references  from  the  History,  and  especially 
from  the  foot-notes,  I  have  tried  to  select  only  those  from  which  his- 
torical information  is  taken.  I  have  omitted  mention  of  works  either 
discussed  or  cited  bj-  waj-  of  illustration  or  comparison ;  to  include  these 
would  have  nearly  doubled  the  length  of  the  list.  I  have  omitted  also 
the  very  large  number  of  manuscript  sources. 

Titles  are  usuall.y  given  by  Warton  in  a  greatly  abbreviated  form. 
I  have  completed  them  by  diligent  search  and  the  examination  of  many 
books,  carefully  comparing  hundreds  of  "Warton's  references  with  the 
originals.  Wlien  Warton  gives  no  dates  and  when  he  probably  had 
access  to  several  editions,  I  have  usually  been  able  to  discover  the  one 
he  used  by  looking  up  his  references  in  the  various  editions.  Letters 
after  the  titles  in  my  list  are  used  with  the  following  significance : 

a.  Warton's  references  correspond  with  this  edition. 

b.  Only  edition  before  Warton's  history. 

c.  Warton's  references  are  not  to  page ;  edition  cannot  be  determined. 

d.  Warton's  references  cannot  be  found  in  this  edition. 

e.  Warton's  references  do  not  correspond  to  any  edition  in  the  British  Museum 
or  Bodleian  Library. 

f.  This  edition  is  not  to  be  found  in  either  the  British  Museum  or  Bodleian 
Library. 

No  letter  is  used  when  Warton's  date  for  an  edition  is  correct,  and  also 
in  a  few  instances  when  I  have  not  verified  his  references  in  the  edition 
or  editions  given  in  my  list. 

The  references  to  Warton's  Histor3^  are  to  the  first  edition  of  vol- 
umes two  and  three,  to  the  second  edition  of  volume  one.  Since  the 
pages  of  dissertations  I  and  II  are  not  numbered  in  that  edition,  I  have 
made  the  pagination  consecutive  through  both  dissertations,  including 
the  numbers  in  parentheses. 

My  method  of  completing  Warton's  titles  may  be  illustrated  by 
the  following  titles  in  which  I  have  preserved  the  original  citation  in 
bold  face  type : 

Eccardus,  Johannus  Georgius :     Corpus  Historicum  Medii  ^vi  ...  2   voll.    Lips. 

1723,  fol. 
11:20. 
Edmonds,  Alexander:     The  Trew  Report  of  the  Dysputacyon  had,  and  begone 

in  the  Conuocacyo  Hours   at  London,     London,   1583.  f 

111:355. 

177 


178  THOMAS  WARTON  [178 

Eginhart;  Vita  et  Gesta  Caroli  magni,  1565.  f 

ibid,   acccsscrunt  .  .     Vcltonis    Goldasti    Animadversiones.  .  .     1711. 
I:  (54,58,91,98,101,102,108). 
Engelbert  of  Trevoux:   Engelberti  Abbatis  Admontensis  Liber  plane  philosoph- 
icus    De   Ortu   &   Fine   Romani   Imperij.   in   La   Eigne:     Maxima   Bibliotheca 
Veterum  Patrum,  etc.     Lugduni,  1677,  vol.  XXV,  p.  363  ff.  a 

I:(ii9). 
Engelhusen,    Theodoricus :      Chronicon    a    Erfordensis    civitatis    T.    Englehusii 
continens   res   Ecclesiae,   i)i    Leipnitz,   G.   W.    von,    Scriptores    rerum    Bruns- 
vicensiuni.  .  .     Helmst.   1671,  4to. 

I:  (55):  11:13. 

Erasmus,  Dcsidcrius  Roterolamus :  Enarratio  in  primum  Psalmum  Davidium ;  una 
cum  Dorpii  Epistola  ad  Erasmum  de  Moriae  Encomio.     Basil,  1538.  a 

II :  387,433.438,439.440,441.446. 

:  Opera  Omni.i,  Lugduni  Batavorum,  1703-6,  10  voll.  a 

11:54,  emend.;  438. 
Erdeswicke,    Sampson:      A    Survey    of    Staffordshire  .  .  with    a    description    of 
Beeston  Castle  in  Cheshire,  etc.     London,  1717.  b 

II:2i6. 
Erythraeus,   lanus   Nicius :     Pinacotheca   Imaginum   lUustrium,   doctrins  vel   in- 
genii   laude,   virorum,   qui,   Auctore   superstite.   diem   suum   obierunt,   ed.   nov. 
Lipsiae,   1692.  a 

11:357- 
Eusebius,  Pamphilus :     Praeparatio  Euangelica.     Paris,  1544  and  1628.  c 

11:371. 


179]  SOURCES  OP  THE  HISTORY  OP  POETRY  179 


SOURCES  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  POETRY 

Abselardus,   Petrus :    Theologia   Christiana.     Sec  Thesaurus   Novus   Anecdotorum, 
per  E.  Martene  et  U.   Durand,  torn.  5.   Paris,  1717  fol. 
II:  168. 
Abbott,  George:     A  Sermon  .  .  preached  at  the  Funerall  Solemnities  of  Thomas, 
Earl    of    Dorset.      London,    1608.      4°.  b 

111:210. 
Abulgazi,    Bayadur-Chan :     Histoire   Genealogique   des   Tatars  traduite   du   manu- 
script Tartare  et  enrichie  de  remarques  sur  I'estat  present  de  I'Asie  Septentrion- 
ale,  par  D  .  .  .  .  (Bentinck)  Leyde,  1726,  i3mo. 

I:(i4). 
Abulfaragii,  see  Gregorius  Abul  Farajius. 

d'Acherius  Lucas:     Veterum  aliquot  scriptorum  spicilegium,  13  voU.     4°.     Paris, 
1665-7. 

I  -.73,  emend. 

Adam  de  Domerham  :     Historia  de  rebus  gestis  Glastoniensibus,  ed.  T.  Hearnius 
Oxon.    1727.  c 

II:(n8). 
Aelian  Claudius :    Varia  Historia  Gronov.  Many  editions.  c 

I:  (54); 
Agrippa,  Henricus  Cornelius :    De  incertitudine  et  vanitate  scientiarum,  or  Of  the 
vanitie  and  uncertgintie  of  artes  and  sciences;  Englished  by  la.  San    (ford) 
London,  1569,  4°. 
III:xxi. 
Aimoinus,  Monachus  Floriacensis  :    Libri  quinque  de  gestis  Francorum  .  .  Omnia 
studio  et  opera  J.  du  Breul.     Paris,  1603,  fol.  a 

II  :i03,  emend. 

Akominatos,  Nicetas :     Historia,  in  Corpus  Byzantinse  Historic.     Paris,  1648,  fol. 

1 :348.  c 

Alciatus,  Andreas  :     Epistola  contra  vitam  Monasticam.  c. 

11:413- 
The  Alcoran,  newly  translated  from  the  Arabic  with  .  .  a  Preliminary  Discourse, 
by  Geo.  Sale.     London,  1734,  4to  and  1764,  8°. 

I: (86)  ;  208,  emend. 
Alcuinus,  Albinus  Flaccus :    Opera,  Paris,  1617,  fol. 

I:(i02). 
• De  Septem  Artibus,  in  the  foregoing,  pp.  1246-1257. 

11:75. 
Allard,   Guy :     La  Bibliotheque  de  Dauphine,  contenant  las  noms  de  ceux  qui  se 
sont  distinguez  par  leur  s(;avoir  dans  cette  province,  et  le  denombrement  de 
leurs  ouvrages  depuis  XII  siecles.     Grenoble,  1680,  i2mo.  b 

I:  (20). 


180  THOMAS   WARTON  [180 

Allatius,  Leo :     De  Libris  et  Rebus  Ecclesiasticis  Grsecorum  dissertationes  et  ob- 
servationes  varire.    2  voll.     Paris  1646,  4°. 

II:2o8. 
:     De  Symeonuni  scriptis  diatriba,  etc.     Paris,  1664,  4°.  a 

I  :i29. 
Aluredi  Beverlacensis  Annales,  ed.   T.  Hearne,  Oxon,  1716.        b 

I:(9). 
Ames,  Joseph  :    Typographical  Antiquities :  being  an  Historical  Account  of   Print- 
ing in  England,  etc.,  London,  1749,  4°.  a 

I  .-267,440 ;   II  :i3,i2i,l67,227,24i ;   III  :77,i82,279,394,423,440,484. 
Anastasius,  the  Sinaite :  OANTOS,  seu  dux  viae,  adversus  Acephalos  .  .  Ingoldst. 
1606,  4°. 
11:176. 
Anderson,  Adam:    An   Historical  and  Chronological   Deduction  of  the  Origin  of 
Commerce   from   the  earliest   accounts  to  the   present   time.    2  voll.     London 
1764,  fol.  a. 

I:(i2i,i47).    255,280,426. 
Andreas,    Valerius:     Fasti    Academici    Studii    generalis    Lovaniensis.     Editio    iter- 
ata,  etc.     Lovanii,  1650,  4°.  a. 

11:436. 
Anna    Comnena :     Alexiados,    libri    quindecim,    cum    interpretatione,    glossario    ac 
notis  Pet-Possini;  ace.  prajfationes  ac  notK  D.  Hoeschel,  Paris,  1651,  fol.  a 

I  ■■34S. 
Annales  monasterii   Burtonensis,  in   Rerum  Anglicarum   Scriptorum   Veterum. 
Anstis,  John :     Register  of  the  Most  NoMe  Order  of  the  Garter.     2  vols.  London, 
1724,  fol.  a 

I  :i2,i  16,172,225,248,252,253,332,335;   II :  134. 
Antonio  Nicolas:     Bibliotheca  Hispana,  2  voll.    Romae,  1672,  fol.  a 

11:416,417. 

:     Bibliotheca  Hispana  Vetus,  Romse  1696  fol.  a 

1:149. 
Apianus,   Petrus  and  Amantius,  Bartholomseus :     Inscriptiones  sacro-sanctx  vetus- 
tatis.     Ingoldstadii,  1534  fol.  c 

11:411. 

Warton  has  1634. 
Archaeologia ;  or  miscellaneous  tracts  relating  to  antiquity,  London,   1773. 

I:  (36,44). 
Arceus,    Fransiscus :     A    most    excellent    and    compendious    metlind     of    curing 
woundes  .  .  written  by  Fransiscus  Arceus  .  .  and  translated  into  English  by 
John  Read  .  .  (with  various  additions).     London,  1588,  4°.  a 

III:i8i. 
Aretinus,  see  Brunus,  Leonard  Aretinus. 
Argentre,  Bcrtrnndus,  de :    L'Histoire  de  Bretagne,  Paris.  1618.  a 

I: (4). 
Arnold,  Richard  :    Begins,  In  this  boke  is  conteined  ye  names  of  the  baylyfs  cus- 
tose,  mayers  and  sherefs  of  ye  cyte  of  london  from  the  tyme  of  king  richard 
the  furst.    Knotvn  as  'Arnold's  Chronicle.'    B.  L.    (London,  1521  ?)  a 

III:  139- 


181]  SOURCES  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  POETRY  181 

Artis  auriferje,  quam  chemiam  vocant  .  .  3  voll.     Basil,  1193-1610.    8°.  a 

11:8. 
Ascham,  Roger:    Familiarum  Epistolarum,  libri  tres.    London,  1581.  8°.  a 

II  :38o,424,447,45l.453  ;  III  -.24. 
:     The    Schole    Master ;     or    plaine    and    pertite    way    of    teach- 
ing children  to   understand,   write   and   speake   the   Latin   tong.   etc.     London, 
1589,  8°.  a 

II 1461  ;  III  :24,33I,4IS,464,49I. 

To.xophilus,  the  schole    of    shoolinge,    etc.      London,    1545,    4°. 


and  157',  4°-  a 

III  :3O0.33i. 
Ashmole,   Elias :     The   Institution,   Laws  &  Ceremonies   of  the  .   .   Order  of   the 
Garter,  London,  1662.  a 

1:14,252,253;  11:336. 

:  Theatrum  Chemicum  Britannicum,  etc.    London,  1652.    4°  a 

II  :5.9.i35.i36,i3",i38,224 ;  III  :85. 
Asser:   Annales  Rerum  Gestarum  Aelfredi  Magni.   aiictore  Asserio  Meneveiisi.  Ed. 
F.  Wise,  Oxford,  1722.  b 

I:  (98). 
Atkyns,  Sir  Robert:     The  Ancient  and  Present  State  of  Gloucestershire.     London, 
1712,  fol.  a 

11:140,159. 
Aubrey,  John:     Miscellanies,  collected  by  J.  .-X.  London   1696  and  1721,  8°.  c 

II  :S,  emend. 

:    The  Natural  History  and  Antiquities  of  Surrey.    5  voll,  London 

1719,18,19. 

III  :26,2i6. 

Augustinus,    D.    Aurelius :     De    Civitate    Dei.  .  cum    conimentt.     Ludovicis    Vivis, 
London,  1596.  c. 
Ill :326. 
:     Opera  .  .  accurante  Erasmo.     10  voll.     Froben,  1529  fol. 

11:371 
Aungerville,  Richard,  see  Bury,  Richard  de. 
Aventinus,  see  Thurnmaier,  Johannus  Aventinus. 

Ayloffe,  Sir  Joseph:    Calendars  of  the  Antient  Charters  .  .  and  of  the  Welsh  and 
Scottish  Rolls  now  remaining  in  the  Tower.    London,  1774.  4°. 
1 :6,  emend. 
Bacon,  Francis:     The  Life  of  King  Henry  VII,  in  A  Complete  History  of  England 
etc.   3  voll.  2nd  ed.  London,  17 19,  fol.  a 

II  :203,2ro. 
Bacon,  Roger :    Opus  Majus  ad  Clementem  Quartum  Pontificem  Romanum  .  .  Ed. 
Jebb,  London,  1733,  fol.  c 

1:101,408,439:    (89,147). 
Baillet,  Adrian :    Jugemens  des  Savans  sur  les  principaux  ouvrages  des  Auteurs, 
8  torn.  Paris,  1722-30  4°.  a 

I:(i3i). 


182  THOMAS  WARTON  [182 

Bale,  John:  Scriptonim  Illustrium  Majoris  Brytannia  Catalogus  a  lapheto  per 
3618  aiinos,  usque  ad  annum  Ininc  Domini  1557.  (Including  Scriptores  Nostril 
Temporis)   Basil   1559  fol.  a 

I: (7,12,96,104,109,122,126.134,148)  :  47,85,87,126,232,287,439, 

11:41,53,125,132,134,135,137,189,210,212,281,321,364,387,422, 

111:61,43.58,79,83,85.194.206,212,213,216,316,317- 

Ballard,  George :  Memoirs  of  Several  Ladies  of  Great  Britain,  who  have  been 
celebrated  for  their  writings  or  skill  in  the  learned  languages  arts  and 
sciences,  Oxford,  1752  4°.  a 

III  :56. 
Baluze,  Etienne :     Miscellaneorum  liber  primus-quartus,  hoc  est,  CoUectio  veterum 
monumentorum,  etc.     Paris   1678-83,  4  tom.  a 

1:294;   11:411.* 

*Warton's  reference  here  is  to  tO)n  VI,  no  doubt  a  mistake  for  tom  IV. 
Banier,   Aiitoinc:    La  Mythologie  et  les  Fables  Expliquces  par  I'liistoire.    3  tom. 
Paris,  1738-40,  4°.  a 

I:(26). 
Barnes,  Joshua:     The  History  of  .  .  .  Edward  III  and  his  Son  Edward  .  .  .  the 
Black  Prince,  etc.     Cambridge,  1688,  fol.  a 

1 :2S2. 
Baron,  Caesar:     Annales  Ecclesiastici  .  .  10  voll.     Antwerp,  1594-1603,  fol, 

11:370;  111:325. 
(Barrington,  Daines)  :     Observations  upon  the  Statutes  chiefly  the  more  Ancient. 
Oxford,  1766. 

1 :46,4S3- 
Barthius,   Caspar :    Adversariorum   commcntariorum  libri   LX  quibus   ex   univcrsa 
antiquitatis  serie  omnis  generis,  auctorum  etc.     Francofurti,  1624  fol. 
1:131,350;  II:2i8. 

:     sec  also  Claudianus,  Claudius. 

:     see  also  Gulielmus,  Brito-amoricus. 

Bartholinus,  Thomas :  Antiquitates  Danicas  de  Causis  Contemptae  a  Danis  adhoc 
gentilibus  Mortis  ex  Vetustis  Codicibus  &  Monumentis  hactenus  ineditis  conges- 
tas.    Hafniae,  i6go,  4°.  a 

I :  (35.42,43,44,46,53,54.59,69) . 

:     Antiquitatum     Danicarum     de     Causis     Contemptae     a     Danis 

adhuc  gentilibus  Mortis  libri  tres.     Hafniae.  1689  4°.  a 

I: (24,31,32)  ;  50,127,213. 
Bartoloccius,    Julius :     Bibliotheca    magna    Rabbinica    de    Scriptoribus    et    Scriptis 
Hebrxis,  etc.  4  voll.  Rom.  1675-94.  fol.  b 

II  :9. 
Batteley,  Nicholas:     The  Antiquities  of  Canterbury,  or  a   Survey  of  that  ancient 
City  with   its   Suburbs,  Cathedral,  &c,  sought  out  and  published  by  the  good 
will   and   industry   of   William    Somner;    the   second   edition    revised   and   en- 
larged by  Nicholas  Battelev,  M.  A.,  etc.  London  1703.  a 
III :386. 


183]  SOURCES  OP  THE  HISTORY  OF  POETRY  183 

Bayeux,  Jean  de :  Joannis  Abrincensis  episcopi,  liber  de  Officiis  Ecclesiasticis  ad 
Mauriliuni  .  .  primum  ex  codice  ms.  coenobii  Salicosani  in  lucem  editus,  etc. 
Rotomagi,  etc.  1679.  b 

I  -.293. 

Bayle,  Pierre:   Dictionnaire  Historique  et  Critique.  3  torn.  Rott.  1702  and  1734  c 

1:339;  11:62;  111:164. 
Beard,  Thomas:    Theatre  of  God's  Judgments.   London  1631,  410. 

Ill  :289,43-- 
de  Beauchamps,  see  Godart  de  Beauchamps,  Pierre  Frangois. 

Becket,  S.  Thomas  a:  Epistolse  et  Vita  Divi  Thomx  Martyris  et  Archi-Episcopi 
Cantuariensis.    Manv  editions.  c 

11:431. 
Beda,    the   Venerable :     Historire    Ecclesiasticae   Gentis    Anglorum    Libri    Quinque, 
Auctore  Sancto  &  Venerabili  Baeda.  .  Una  cum  reliquis  ejus  Operibus  Histo- 
ricis  in  unum  Volumen  Collectis  ....  cura  et  studio  Johannis  Smith.     Canta- 
brigias,  1722,  fol.  a 

I:(5S,93.94.95.96,98,ioi.iO2,iO3,iO4,i0S,lio,ii2,i24),8. 
Bedwell,  Wilialm :     The  Turnament  of  Tottenham,  or,  The  wooing,  winning  and 
wedding,  of  Tibbe,  the  reev's  daughter  there.     Written  long  since  in   verse, 
by  Mr.  Gilbert  Pilkington.  .  .    Taken  out  of  an  ancient  Manuscript,  and  pub- 
lished for  the  delight  of  others  by  Wilialm  Bedwell.  .  .  London,  1631.  a 
111:103. 
Belethus,  J.   see  Durandus,  Gulielmus. 

Belius,  Matthias :  Apparatus  ad  Historiam  Hungarise,  sive,  CoUectio  Miscella  Mon- 
umentorum.  .  .    Posonii,  1735-46  fol.  c 

11:418. 
Belleforest,  Frangois  de :     Histoires  Tragiques,  1580.  f. 

Ill  :xxv. 
Bembo,  Pietro :    Historiae  Venetise  libri  XII.    Many  editions.  e 

11:413. 
Benedictus  Abbas :    De  Vita  &  gestis  Henrici  II  et  Ricardi  I,  E.  codice,  MS.  in 
Bibliotheca  Harleiana  descripsit  et  .  .  edidit  T.  Hearnius,  Oxon.  1735. 
1:121,157,432,441,442;  11:317;  111:72;  I:ii3,449,emend. 
Benedictus,   Alexander :    De   Bello  Venetorum  cum   Carolo   VIII   Gallorum   Rege 
.'\nno    1497,    Gesto   Lib.   II.  see  Justinianus,    P.   Rerum   Venetarum.  .  .    Histo- 
ria,  et  etc.    Argentorati,   1610.  c 

1:133. 
Bentham,    James:     History    and    Antiquities    of    the    Conventual    and    Cathedral 
Church  of  Ely  from  the  foundation  of  the  Monastery  A.  D.  675-1771.    Camb. 
1771.  b 

III  :384. 
Berchorius,  Petrus :     Reductorium   Morale   etc.  .  .  .      Libri  Quatuordecim.  .  Venet 
1583,  fol.  a 

III  :lxxxvii,io8. 
Bergomensis.  see  Forestus,  Jacobus  Philipus,  Bergomas. 

Beveregius,  Gulielmus:  Synodicon,  sive  pandectas  canonum  SS.  Apostolorum  et 
Conciliorum  ab  Ecclesia  Grasca  receptorum.    Oxon.  1672,  fol. 

II  :370. 


184  THOMAS   WARTON  [184 

Maxima  BiL/liotheca  Veterum  Patrum,  sec  La  Bigne,  Margarinus. 
Bibliothcca    Sirithiana,   seu   Catalogus    Libroruni    D.   Josephi    Smithii    Angli    .   .   . 
Addenda  ct  Corrigenda  in  superior!  Catalogo  etc.   Venetiis  1755.  a 

1 :3S2. 
Binius,  Severinus :    Concilia  Gcneralia  et  provincialia  quotquot  reperiri  potuerunt. 
etc.   4  toni.   Colon.  Agrip.  1618. 
Ill: 
Biorner,   Eric  Julius:    Volunien    Ilistoricuni,  contincns  \«iriorum   in  orbo   Hyper- 
boreo  antique  reguni,  heroum  et  pugilum  etc.     Stockholm,  1737  fol. 
I:(68). 
Blackstone,  Sir  William :     Commentaries  on  the  Laws  of  England.    Many  editions. 
c 

1 :298,  emend. 
(Blackwel!,  Thomas  C.)  :    Enquiry  into  the  Life  and  Writings  of  Homer.    London, 
1735.  1736.  c 

in  :497. 
Blair,  Hugh:    A  Critical  Dissertation  on  the  Poems  of  Ossian,  3rd  ed.  1765. 

I:(30). 
Blesensis,  Petrus,  see  Peter  of  Blois. 

Blomefield,  Francis :    An  Essay  towards  a  Topographical  History  of  the  Country 
of  Norfolk,  s  voll.    Fersfield,  Norwich  and  Lynn,  1739-75,  fol.  b 

1:282,430,453;  11:461;  111:308. 
Blondus,  Flavius :     Italia  illustrata.     .l/o»v  editions.  e 

I:(l2o). 
Blount.  Thomas:    Fragmenta  Antiquitatis.    Ancient  Tenures  of  Land  and  Jocular 
Customs  of  some  Manors,  London  1679.  b. 

II :2o6. 
Boccacio,  Giovanni:     Genealogia  deorum  gentilium,  fol.  Basil,  1532.  a 

III:lx.x.xix. 

Warton   says   1552,  but  that   is  surely  a   mistake,   since   his   reference 
corresponds  with  the  edition  given. 
Boerhaave,   Herman :    A  New   Method  of   Chemistry  .   .  to  which  is  prefixed,   .A 
Critical  History  of  Chemistry  and  Chemists  .  .  London  7727  4°.  a 

I:(87). 
Boethius,  Hector:    Heir  beginnis  the  hystory  and  croniklis  of   Scotland  tran?latit 
laitlv  be  maister  J.  Bellenden.  .  .    T.  Davidson,  Edinburgh   [1536]   fo!. 
I: (47);   n:32i. 
Boileau-Despreaux,   Nicholas:    L'Art  Poetique.  c 

1 :382. 
Bolton,  Edmund:    Hypercritica :  or  a  Rule  of  Judgement,  for  writing  or  reading 
our  History's.  .   Now  first  published  by  Ant[hony]  Hall,  at  the  end  of  Nicolai 
Triveti  .'\nnalium  Continuatio  et  .^danii   Murimuthensis   Chronicon.     Oxford, 
1722.  8°.  a 

HI  :24,27S-6.278,279,446. 
Bona,  John:     Rerum  Liturgicani.    j1/a»v  editions.  c 

I:(55). 


185]  SOURCES  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  POETRY  185 

Boniface,  Saint:     Epistolse,  Mogunt,  1629.     Also  in  Bibl.  Patr.  torn.  XIII.    see  La 
Eigne.  a 

II  :22l. 

Horde,   Andrew :     The   fyrst  boke   of   the    Introduction   to   Knowledge.   .    London 
1542.  c 

III  70. 

Borel,  Pierre ;    Tresor  de  Recherches  et  Antiquitez  Gauloises  et  Francoises  reduits 
en  ordre  alphabetique  et  enrichies  de  beaucoup  d'origines,  epitaphes,  etc.    Paris, 

165s,  4°- 

I  :iiS,  emend. 

Borlase,  William:   The  Xatural  History  of  Cornwall  .  .  Oxford,  1758. 
1 :237. 

:     Observations  on  the  Antiquities  historical  and  monumental  of 

Cornwall,  London,  1769. 
I:  (4.6,7,35,48). 
Borrichius,   Olaus :    Dissertationes   Academicx  de    Poetis.    .   .    Francofurtii,    16S3, 
4°.  a 

1:132,378. 
Bosch,  Andrew :    Summari,  Inde.x  o  Epitome  dels  admirables  y  nobilissimo  Titolos 
de  Honor  de  Catalunya,  Rosello,  y  Cerdanya,  y  de  la  grades,  etc.     Perpinya, 
1628,  fol.  b 

II  :i03,  emend. 
Bostonus,  Joannes,  see  Bale,  John. 

Scriptoruni   illuslrium   majoris   Britannire   .   .   Catalogus   .   .   ex   .    .   ,   Bostono 
Buriensi  .  .  collectus,  etc.     Basil   1559.  a 

I: (147). 
Boulay,  Cesar-figasse  du :     Histoire  de   Patronis  quatuor  Nationum  Universitates, 
ed.    1662,  S°. 
11:375. 

:     Historia  Universitatis  Parisiensis,  6  torn.     Paris  1665-1673,  fol. 

H  :347.3rS- 
:     see   also    Histoire   de   I'Academie   Royale   des    Inscriptiones   et 


Belles  Lettres. 
Bourdeilles,  Pierre  de :    Memoires. 
n:4i4. 

Bourdeilles  wrote  many  memoirs,  but  I  can   find  Warton's  reference 
in  none  of  them. 
Bradwardinus,  Thomas :    de  Causa  Dei,  contra  Pelagium,  et  de  virtute  Causarum, 
ad  suos  Mertonenses,  libri  tres,  opera  et  studio  H.  Savilii,  nunc  primum  editi, 
London,  1618,  fol. 
1:388:  n  :7,11s. 

Warton  has  161/.  1 :388. 
Brantome,  Peter  de,  see  Bourdeilles,  Pierre  de. 

Brassicanus,  Johannes  .Alexander :  De  Bibliothecis,  cum  primis  regia  Budensi, 
epistola,  in  Maderus,  JJ.  D  Bibliothecis  atque  .'\rchivis  virorum  clarissimo- 
rum  etc.     Helmstadii,   1666.  a 

11:417. 


186  THOMAS  WARTON  [186 
:     D.   Salviani.  .  .  de  vero  Judicio   et   Providentia   Dei  .  .  .  Litfri 


VIII  cum  J.  A.  B.  cditi  etc.     Basil  1530  fol.  a 

11:417. 
Brillon,  Pierre  Jacques:    Dictionaire  des  Arrets,  ou  Jurisprudence  Universelle  des 
Parlcnicns  de  France,  et  autres  tribunaux.    6  torn,  Paris,  1727,  fol. 

11:389. 
Brompton,  Jolin :     Chronicon  ab  anno  Domini  xlxxxviii  ac  mcxcviii,  see  Historiae 
Anglicana:  Scriptores  Decern,  ed.  Twysden,  Sir  Roger.  a 

I:  (97) -3. 
Brovorius  de  Niedek,  Mattheus :    De  Populorum  Vcterum  et  Recentiorun;  Adorat- 
ionibus  dissertatio,  .  .  Amstelaedami,  1713,  8°.  a 

I:(SS). 
Brown,  Edward,  see  Fasciculus. 
Brunus,  Leonardus,  Aretinus :    Epistolarum.    Many  editions.  e 

I:  (78);   11:411. 
Buchanan,  George:    Opera  omnia,  including  Rerum  Scoticarum   Historia.     2  torn. 
Edinburgh  1715,  fol.  c 

11:125,318. 
Buo!c,  Sir  Gei>rge:   The  Third  Universitie  of  England:  or  A  Treatise  of  the  foun- 
dations of  all  the  colledges  .  .  within  and  about  the  most  famous  Cittie  of 
London.  .  .     London,   1615.  a 

II  :38. 
Bulengerus,   Julius   Caesar:     de  Circo  Romano   Circensibus   Ludisque,   etc.     Lugd. 
1619.  e 

1:129. 
BuUart,    Isaac :     Academic    des    Sciences    et    des  Arts,  contenant  les  Vies,  &  les 
Eloges  des  Hommes  Illustres.     Paris,  1682,  fol.  a 

11:423. 
de  Bure,  Guillaume  Frangois :     Bibliographie  Instructive ;  ou  Traite  de  la  connois- 
saiice  dts  livres  raros  et  singuliers.  .  .    7  torn.  Paris,  1763-61}.  d 

II  :54,  emend. 

Burman,  Charles:  Lives  of  those  eminent  antiquaries  Elias  Ashmole,  Esq.  and 
Mr.  William  Lilly,  written  by  themselves,  containing,  first,  Mr.  Lilly's  History 
of   his   Life  and   times;   with  notes   by   Mr.   Ashmole.  .  .     London,   1717   and 

1774. 

III  :496. 

Burnet,  Gilbert:  History  of  the  Reformation  of  the  Church  of  England.  Many 
editions. 

1:241 ;  11:452;  111:197,205. 
Burton,  Robert:  Anatomy  of  Melancholy.  Oxon.  1624. 

1:62;   111:296,425,434. 
Bury,  Richard  de :     Philobiblon,  or  de  Amore  Librorum,  Oxford,   1599. 

I : (84, 1 21), 291. 
Cabaret   d'Orronville,  Jean :    Histoire   de   la   vie   .   .   de   Louys,   Due   de   Bourbon, 
etc.  .  Paris,  1612,  8°.  a 

1:167. 


187]  SOURCES  OP  THE  HISTORY  OP  POETRY  187 

Calderwood,    David:     The    true    History    of    the    Church    of    Scotland,  .  .    Edin- 
burgh, 1678,  fol. 

11:315. 
Camden,    William :      Britannia,    sive    Florentissimorum    Regnorum    Anglic,    Sco- 
tiae,  Hiberniae,  et  Insularum  adiacentium  ex  intima  antiquitate  Chorographica 
Descriptio.     London  1602  and  1723,  a 

I:(S.99),4o6;  11:426;  III:40i. 

:     Reges.  Reginse,  Nobiles  et  Alij  in  Ecclesia  Collegiata  B.  Petri! 

Westmonasterij  sepulti  vsque  ad  annum  1600,  London,  1600,  4°. 
11:336;  111:384. 

Remaines,  concerning  Britaine,  etc.     London,  1674. 


I:(ii5>i3S,i36,i39.i4o),7o;  II  :,36. 

Anglia,  Hibernica,  Normanica,  Cambria  a  veteribus  scripta ;  ex 


quibus  Asser  Menevensis,  Anonymus  de  vita  Gulielmi   Conquestoris,  Thomas 

Walsingham,  Thomas  de  la  More,  Gulielmus  Gemiticensis,  Giraldus  Cambren- 

sis :  etc.    Francofurti,  1602.  a 

1:128,254,312,103. 
Campion,  Edmund :     Roberti  Turneri  Devonii  Posthuma  .  .  Accesserunt  E.  Cam- 

piani.     Orationes,  Epistolae,  Tractatus    de    Imitatione    Rhetorica    etc.     Ingold- 

stadii,  1602,  8°. 
Ill  :40i. 
Canisius,    Henry :     Lectiones    Antiquae,    sive   Thesaurus   monumentorum   ecclesias- 

ticorum  et  historicorum.     Ingoldstadt,   1601-4  and  Amst.   1725.   fol. 

I :  (92,145). 
Cantacuzenus,  John :     Ex  Imperatoris  Historiarum  Libri  IV.  ...  3  tom.     Paris, 
1645.  a 

1:348. 
Capell,   Edward :     Prolusions,   or   select  pieces   of   antient    Poetry,   London,    1760. 

11:138;  111:136. 
Caradoc  of  Llancarvan,  see  Powel,  David. 
Carew,  Richard:    Survey  of  Cornwall.  .  .  London,  1602,  8°. 

1:47,87. 
Carpentier,   Pierre :     Novum  ad  scriptores  medii  aevi  .  .   Supplementum,   ad  auc- 
tiorem  glossarii  Cangfiani  editionem  .  .  4  voll.     Paris  1766,  fol. 
I:(49,l43),98,i39,i58,i77,i89,2io,244,245,247,303,332,388; 
11:231,317,345,346,349.368,381,375,387- 
I  :i6i,i70,  emend. 
Casley,   David:     A  Catalogue  of  the  Manuscripts  of  the  King's  Library  .  .Lon- 
don, 1734.  b. 

I:(37). 
Cassiodorus,  Magnus  Aurelius:     Opera  Omnia.  2  tom.    Rotomagi,  1679. 

II:ii. 

:    Variarum  Epistolarum,  Libri,  xii.    Many  editions.  c 

Cassiodorus,    Marcus    Aurelius:     Variarum    Epistolarum,  Libri    xii.     Many    edi- 
tions, c 

I:  (74). 


188  THOMAS  WARTON  [188 

Catalogus  Codicum  MSS.     Bibliothecae  rcgiac  Parisiensis  .  .  Paris,   1739-44-  b 

II  :2i,ii7. 
Catel,  Guillaume :    Memoires  de  I'Histoire  de  Langue-doc.    Tolose,  1633,  fol.  b 

I:(i8). 
Cato,   Dionysiiis:     Disticha   de   moribiis.     Edited  by   Christian   Daumius,   Cygneae, 
1672,  8°. 

I:(ii9). 
Cave,  Henry:     Narration  of  the  Fall  of  Paris  Gardens.     London,  1588.  f 

111:289. 
Cave,   William:     Scriptorum   Ecclesiasticorum   Historia  Literaria.  .    2  voll.     Lon- 
donii,  1688,  fol.  a 

I :  (74.91.93.96,99.102,104,106,127,135,122,146) ,256,343 ; 
11:40,136. 
Cavendish,  George:     The  Memoirs  of  Cardinal  Woolsey;  etc.     London,  1706,  8°. 
a 

II  :330,439- 

Warton  says  1708,  but  I  find  no  such  edition,  and  his  references  corre- 
spond with  the  edition  given. 
Caxton,  William:     The  Recule  of  the  historyes  of  Troye  from  the  French  of  Ra- 
nal  le  Fevre,  n.d.  fol. 
II:8i. 

— •:     The  Booke  of  Eneydos,  compyled  by  Uyrgryle,  cute  of  Frenche; 

reduced  into  Englyshe.     J490,  fol. 
11:130,337. 
:     The  Golden  Legende,  1493. 


Ill  :xi,xxii,xxv. 

Cedrinus,    George :     Compendium    Historiarum,    ex    versione    Guil.    Xylandri,    cum 
ejusdem  annotationibus  .  .  Paris,  1647,  2  voll. 
I:  (88);  II  :370. 
Celsius,  Olaf:     BibliothecEe  Upsaliensis  Historia,  Upsal.i,  1745. 

I:(58). 
Celtes,  Conrad:     de  origine  Situ,  Moribus,  et  Institutis  Norimbergje  .  .  in  Opera, 
Norimb,  1502,  4°. 

II  :376,4i6. 

Cervantes,  Miguel  de  Saavedra :     The  Life  and  Exploits  of   Don   Quixote  de  la 
Mancha,  translated  from  the  Original  Spanish  .  .  by  Cliarles  Jarvis,  Esq.  with 
A  Supplement  to  the  Translator's  Preface,  Communicated  by  a  learned  writer, 
well  known  in  the  literary  world,  [Bishop  Warburton].    London,  1608. 
I:ii2. 
Challoner,    Sir    Thomas:     De    Republica    Anglorum    instauranda    libri    decem  .  . 
Lond.  1579. 
111:9. 
Chambre.  Gulielmus :     Historia  de  Episcopis  Dunelmensibus,  see  Wharton,  Henry : 
Anglia  Sacra,  vol.  I.     1691.  a 

I:(i2:). 
Chapman,  George:    May-Day.    London,  161 1,  4°. 

III  :iii  ;279. 


189]  SOURCES  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  POETRY  189 

Chardin,  Jean:    Voyages  en  Perse,  et  autres  lieux  de  I'Orient  .  .  Amst.  1711  and 
■735- 

I:(i4). 
Chaucer.  Geoffrey:     Works,  ed.  Urry,  London,  1721.  a 

I:(ii8,i3i,i45). 

:     The     Canterbury    Tales     of     Chaucer,    with    an     essay    upon 

his  language  and  Versification,  an  Introductory  Discourse  and  Notes.     Ed.  by 
Thomas  Tyrwhitt.    anon.  a 

1:86,458,466,  emend.     11:273;   103,  emend.     Ill  :vi,lxvii,lxxxi,76,90,i3i. 
Cherubinus,    Laertius :     Magnum    Bullarium    Romanum     etc.     Luxemburg!,    1727, 
fol.  b. 

11:428. 
Du    Chesne,    Andre :     Historix   Francorum    Scriptores   Coxtanei   .    .  Paris,    1636- 
49  fol.  and  with  Barthius's  notes,  Cj'gne,  1657,  4°. 
I: (21.41)  ;s,25». 

Warton  says  Paris,  1694,  probably  a  mistake  for  1649. 

;     Historic   Normannorum   Scriptores   antiqui,   etc.     Lut.     Paris. 

1619.  a 

1:455;  11:236. 
Christine  de  Pisan :     Vie  de  Charles  V.  .  .    Rov  de  France.  c 

II:ii5. 
The  Chronicles  of  England.    Here  beg^'nnys  a  schort  &  breve  tabull  on  thes  Cron- 
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II:ii. 

Warton  has  Fructus  iemporis. 
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11:217. 
Chytraeus,    David:      Historici    Clarissimi    Saxonia,    ab    Anno    Christi    1500   usque 
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II :4I5. 
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1 :348. 
Clarke,    William :     The    Connexion    of    the    Roman,    Saxon,    and    English    Coins. 
London,  1767,  and  1771. 
I:(24). 
Claudianus,  Claudius :     Opera  cum  animadvers.     Casp.  Barthius.  Hanov.  1612,  and 
Francof.  1650. 

1:133;  11:75. 
Clemens,  Titus  Flavius  Alexandrinus :     dementis  Stromatx  liber,   Quis  Dives  sa- 
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11:371. 


190 


THOMAS   WARTON 


[190 


Clerk,  John:     A  Trctise  of  Xobilitie,  London.  15^3,  i2mo.  f 

111:26. 
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I:(66). 
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quibusdam   G.   Lillii   Grammatices   rudimentia  published  with  VVoIsey's   Rudi- 
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1 :28r. 
Collier,  Jeremy:     An   Ecclesiastical  History  of   Great  Britain,  chiefly  of  England 
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11 :450>452. 
Comines,   Philippe  de :     Les  Memoires  dc  P.  de  C.  .  .  augmentee  par  M.  Lenglet 
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Londres  et  Paris,  1747,  4°. 
I:(86). 
A  Complete  History  of   England:   with  the  Lives  of  all  the  Kings  and  Queens 
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II :203. 
Conciliorum    Collectio    Regia    Maxima,    edita    a    studio    Joan.    Harduini,    1 1    tom. 
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II  :3C)0. 

Warton  has  1714. 
Conon,   Grammaticus :     Narrationes  quinquaginta,   in   Historic   Poetica;   Scriptores 
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Conringius,   Hermannus :     De   Scriptoribus  XVI  post  Christum  natum   sasculorum 
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Constantius,  Africanus:     Opera,   Basil,   1536,   fol.  a 

1:441- 
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111:170,171. 
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1:348,349,350,351- 


191]  SOURCES  OF  THE  HISTORY  OP  POETRY  191 

Cuspinianus,    Johannus :     De    Cassaribus    atque    Imperatoribus    Ronianoruni    opus 
insigne.    Many  editions. 
I:(8g). 
Dalrymple,  Sir  David:     Ancient  Scottish  Poems,  Edinburgh,  1770. 

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Danois,  see  Aulnoy,  (or  Aunoy)  Marie  Catherine  le  Jumel  de  Barneville  de  la  Motte, 
Baronne  d' :     Relation  du  voyage  d'Espagne,  La  Haj'e,  1691,  12°.  f 

I:  (20). 
Dart,    John:     Westmonasterium ;    or    the    History    and   Antiquities    of    the    Abbey 
Church  of  St.  Peter's,  Westminster.    2  voll.  London,  1742,  fol.  a 

1 :392,  emend. 
Davies,    Miles :     Icon    Libellorum ;    or    A    Critical    History    of    Pamphlets.     Lond. 
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II  -.337. 

Davison,  Francis:     Poems;  or,  A   Poeticall  Rhapsody;  containing  divers  sonnets, 
odes,  elegies,  madrigals,  and  other  poesies,  both  in  rime  and  measured  verse. 
The  fourth  impression.  .  London,  1621.    8°. 
HI  .32. 

Dee,  John:     Compendious  Rehearsall.  .  .     1592.  f. 

11 :379- 

Dekker,  Thomas:     The  Gul's  Horne-booke,  London,  1609,  4°. 

ni  -.425,426. 

:     Satiromastix,    or    the    Untrussing   of    the     Humorous     Poet. 

London,  1602,  4°, 

11:393- 
Delrius,   Martin    Antliony.     Disquisitionum   Magicarum   libri   sex,   etc.     Many   edi- 
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Dempster,    Thomas:     Apparatus    ad    historiani    Scoticam    libri    duo;  .  .  accessere 
martyrologium    Scoticum    sanctorum,    scriptorum    Scotorum    nomenclatura    et 
catalogus  in  fine  operum  auctoris.     Bonon,  1622,  4°. 
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Dictys   Cretensis :     de   Bello  Trojano.   et   Dares   Phrygius :   de  excidio   Trojae.  .  in 
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Diodorus,    Siculus :      Historiarum    libri    aliquot   qui    extant.      Basil    1539.     4°    and 
iiianv  oilier  editions. 
I:  (54.66): 
Ditmarus  Siculus :     Chronici  libri   septem  nunc  primum  in  lucem  editi.  Franc,  ad 
Msen.  1580,  fol. 

III  :xlvii. 

Dodsley.  Robert:     A  Select  Collection  of  Old  Plays.     London,  1744. 

1 :2ro. 
Dodsworth.  Roger,  see  Dugdale,  William. 
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Drake,  Francis:     Eboracum  :  or,  the  History  and  Antiquities  of  the  City  of  York, 
etc.     London,  1736,  fol.  b. 

I: (36). 
Drayton,   Michael:     England's   Heroicall   Epistles,   newly   enlarged,   London,    1598. 

8°. 

I  :i  17,409;  III  :7. 
:     To    Henry    Reynolds.   .   .   of    Poets    and    Poesie,    i)i    Works, 

1759-            i 
ni  :4i,446. 
:     Poly-olbion,   [with  the  Illustrations  of  John  Selden],  London, 


1631,  fol. 

I:(5o)  ;  406. 
Du  Breul,  Jacques:     Le  Theatre  des  Antiquitez  de  Paris,  Augmentee  en  cette  edi- 
tion d'un  supplement.    2  pts.     Paris,  1639,  4°. 

11:413. 
Ducarel.     Andrew     Coltee :     Anglo-Norman     .\ntiquities     considered,     in     a    tour 
through  part  of  Normandy.    London,  1767,  fol.  b 

I: (36):  64. 
Du  Chesne,  Andre:     Historise,  Francorum   Scriptores   Coxtanei.  .     Paris,   1636-49, 
fol.  and  with  Bartliius's  notes.  Cygne,  1657,  4°.  a 

I: (21,141)  ;  5,254. 

Warton  says  Paris  l6g.!,  probably  an  error  for  1649. 

— ■ ;     Historic   Normannorum    Scriptores   antiqui,   etc.     Lut.     Paris. 

1619.  a 

1 :45s;  11:236. 
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fimse  Graecitatis.  .  Accedit  appendix.  .  una  cum  brevi  etyniologico  linguae  Galli- 
cx  ex  utroque  glossario.    Lugduni,  1688,  fol.  a 

1:62,129,131,178.347.349,378:  463,  emend. 

:      Glossarium    ad     scriptores    mediae    et     infimK     Latinitatis    ed. 

nova.  .  .  opera  et  studio  Monachorum  Ordinis  S.  Bencdicti  e  Congregatione  S.  ! 

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I  :    (2), (117)  ;I57,I59,I78,12I, 136,146,154,158,167,217,248,303,365,384. 
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HI  :xliii,liii,lxxix  ;  127,152. 
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I  :I29. 
Dugdale,    Sir   William.      Tlie   Antiquities   of    Warwickshire,    Illustrated,    etc.     2nd 
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11:140,159,362. 

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1 :3,l  16.145,212,377;   III  :8, 10,42,43.46,58. 

-:     History  of   St.   Paul's  Cathedral  in   London,  London,   1658  fol. 


and  1716.  fol. 
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193]  SOURCES  OP  THE  HISTORY  OF  POETRY  193 
and  Dodsworth,  Roger:     Monasticon  Anglicanum,  sive   Pandec- 


ta;  Coenobroruni   Benedictorum,  Cluniacensiuni  Cisterciensium,  Carthusianorum 
a  primordiis  ad  eoriim  usque  dissolutionem,  etc.     3  voll.     London,  1693.  a 

I  :(96,ioi, 114,11V, 118,121)  ;  58,88,1,16,177,247,248,281,282,298,302,303,430; 

II  ;2o8,22i, 374,429,430,447. 
111:153.  1 :376.403,emend. 

Origines    Juridiciales :      English    laws.    Courts    of    Justice,   etc. 


London,   1666,  fol.  a 

I:(28)  ;  11:363.398,399,405. 
Durandus.    Gulielmus :      Rationale   divinorum   officiorum.     Adjectum    fuit   prsetera 
aliud  divinorum  Officiorum  Rationale  ab  J.  Beletlio  .  .  conscriptuni ;  etc.;  many 
editions.  c 

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Du  Tilliot,  sec  Lucotte,  J.  B.  du  Tilliot. 

Du  Verdier :     Bibliotheques  Francoises  de  la  Croix  du  Maine  et  de  du  Verdier,  6 
voll.    Paris,  1772,  4°.  c 

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1723,  fol. 
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tlie  Conuocacvo  Hours  at  London,  London,  1583.  f. 

ni;3SS.   " 
Eginhart  or  Einhardus :    Vita  et  Gesta  Caroli  magni,  1516.  f. 

ibid,  accesserunt  .  .  Veltonis  Goldasti  Animadversiones.  .  .  1565,  f  and  Trajecti 
ad  Rhenum.  171 1. 

I  :(54,58,9l,98,ioi, 102.108). 

Engelbert  of  Trevou.x  :     Engell)erti  Abbatis  Admontensis  Liber  plane  philosophicus 

De  Ortu  &  Fine  Romani  Impcrij.   in  La  Eigne:    Maxima  Bibliotheca  Veterum 

Patrum,  etc.    Lugduni,  1677,  vol.  XXV,  p.  363  ff.  a 

I:(ii9). 
Engelhusen,  Theodoricus :     Chronicon  a   Erfordensis  civitatis   T.  Englehusii  con- 

tinens  res  Ecclesix,  in  Leipnitz,  G.  W.  von  :    Scriptores  rerum  Brunsvicensium 

.  .  Helmst.    1671,  4°. 

1(55);  11:13. 

Erasmus,  Desiderius  Roterodamus :     Enarratio  in  primum  Psalmum  Davidium  :  vma 
cum  Dorpii  Epistola  ad  Erasmum  de  Morise  Encomio.   Basil,  1538.  a 
11 :387.433.438,439,440,44i,446. 
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II  :54.  emend. ;  438. 

Erdeswicke,  Sampson :     A  Survey  of  Staffordshire.  .  with  a  description  of  Bees- 
ton  Castle  in  Cheshire,  etc.     London,  1717.  b 
11:216. 
Erigena,  see  Scotus,  Johannes  Erigena. 

Erythraeus,  lanus  Nicius :  Pinacotheca  Imaginum  Illustrium,  doctrin^e  vel  ingenii 
laude,  virorum,  qui,  .\uctore  superstite,  diem  suum  obierunt,  ed.  nov.  Lipsiae, 
1692.  a 

11:357. 


194  THOMAS  WARTON  [194 

Eusebius,  Pamphilus:     Praparatio  Euangelica.     Paris.  1544  and  1628.  c 

11:371 
Evans,  Evan:    Some  specimens  of  the  Poetry  of  the  Ancient  Welsh  Bards,  U  ith 
de  Bardiis  Disscrtatio,  etc.   London,  1764.  b 

I: (7,50,62,64)  ;  92. 
Eyston,  Charles:     A  little  Monument  to  the  once  famous  Abbey  and  Borough  of 
Glastonbury,  or  a  short  specimen  of  the  History  of  that  ancient  Monastery  & 
Town,  etc.  />r.  by  Hearne  in  History  and  Antiquities  of   Glastonbury,  Oxon. 
1722.  b 

1 :437 ;  11 :44S. 
Fabliaux  at  Contes  des  poets  fran<;ois  des  XII,  XIII,  XIV,  et  XVes  siecles,  tires  des 
meilleurs  auteurs  [by  E.  B'arbazan]  Paris,  1756,  12°.  a 

1:431,  emend. 
Fabricius,  Joannes  Albertus :     Bibliotlieca  Grasca,  14,  veil.  Haniburgi  1705-7,  4°- 

I  :(5i,86,87,90,93,ni, 143,147)  ;    i30,i40,35o,35i,378.393,394,42i,442,444,463  ;   463 
•  emend. 
n:8 

:     Bibliotheca  Latina  Mediae  et  Infimje  statis,  6  torn.  .  Hamburgi, 

1734-46.  a 

I  :(99,n9,i20,i26,i27)  ;  II:i9. 
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II : 1 76,306. 
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8°. 

III:Ixvi. 

see  Miraeus,  Aubertus :   Bibliotheca  ecclesiastica.  .  2  partt :  multo 


auctior   additis   tum   alliis   scriptoribus   ejusdem   argumenti   tuni   variorum   an- 
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dedcs  done  in   the  tyme   of  the  rcygne  of   the  moste   excellent   pryiice  kynge 
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Farmer.  Richard  :     An  Essay  on  the  Learning  of  Shakespeare,  Cambridge,  1767,  8°. 

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Farnaby,  Thomas  :    see  Martial,  M.  Valerius :    Epigrammata  animadversa,  emendata 
et  comnicntariolis  explicata  per  The.  Farnabium,  Lond.  1615,  8°.  oilier  editions. 
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Fasciculus  rcrum  expetendarum  ac  fugiendarum,  in  quo  primum  continetur  concil- 
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1 :29i ;  II  ;368. 


195]  SOURCES  OF  THE  HISTORY  OF  POETRY  195 

Fauchet,  Claude :    Recueil  de  I'origine  de  la  langue  et  poesie  frangoise,  etc.     Paris, 
1581,  4°-  a 

I: (123)  ;  37.64,74,109,112,134,135,139,190,212,368,317,463; 
II:no. 
Favyn,  Andre:    Le  Theatre  d'Honnevr  et  de  Chevalerie,  etc.    Paris,  1620,  4°.  a 

1 :332- 
Felibien,  Michel:     Histoire  de  la  ville  de  Paris  .  .  reveue,  augmentee  et  mise  au 
jour  par  D.  Guy-Alexis  Lobineau,  tous  deux  Pretres  Religieux  Benedictins,  de 
la  Congregation  de  Saint  ^laur  ...    5  vols.  Paris,  1725,  fol.  a 

1 :246. 
Ferrarius,  Octavius :     Origines  Linguae  Italicae.     Patavii,  1676,  fol.  b 

11:357. 
Feron,  Jehan   le :     De  la   primitive   institution  des   roys,   herauldz  et  poursuivons 
d'armes.    Paris,  1555,  fol. 
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Feustel,  Christian :     Miscellanea  sacra  et  erudita  de  phraseologia  et  emphasi  biblica 
antiquitatum      studio,     biographis,     Elencho     Pontificio,    etc.      Lipsiae,     1715, 
12°.  a 

11:424. 
Fiddes,  Richard  :     The  Life  of  Cardinal  Wolsey,  London,  1726,  fol.  a 

II  :425,+2S,434,435- 
Field,  John:     .\  godly  exhortation,  by  occasion   of  the   late  judgement  of   God, 
shewed  at  Parris-garden,  the  thirteenth  day  of  Januarie;  etc.     London,  1583, 
8° 

111:288. 
FigHucci,  Felice:     de  la  Filosofia  Morale   X  libri   sopra  li   dieci  libri   d:   I'ethica 
d'Aristotile.    Roma,  1551,  4°. 
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Finett,  Sir    John :     Finetti    Philoxcnis :    some    choice    Observations,  tou  ;hing    the 
Reception  and   Precedence  &c  of  Forren  Ambassadors  in  England.     London, 
1656,  8°. 

II  :399.40i. 

Finnaeus,  Johannus :     Dissertatio  historico-Iitteraria  de   Speculo   Regali.     prefixed 

to  Kongs  Skugg-Lio  .  .  Sor^e,  1768,  4°.  b 

111:263. 
Fischerus,   Johannus :     Hereafter   foloweth  a  mornynge  remembrance  had  at  the 

moneth  mynde  of  .  .  Margarete  Countesse  of  Rychemonde  .  .  pr.  by  T.  Baker, 

London,  1708. 

III  :322. 

Fitz-Stephen.  William :     Description  of  the  City  of  London,  newly  translated,  etc. 
[by  S.  Pegge.]  London,  1772,  4°. 

I:(i45). 
Flacius,  Matthias  lUyricus :     Catalogus  Testium  Veritatis  etc.    Basil.     1556,  8°. 

II:206. 
Flahert}-.  Mauritius,  O' :     Og>gia ;   seu,  Rerum  Hibernicarum  Chronologia.    Lond. 
1685.  4°. 

I:(33). 


196  THOMAS   WARTON  [196 

Flamina.  Gualvaneus  ilc  la:     Manipulus  Floriim,  sci-  Rcruin  Italicarum  Scriptores 

Muratori,  tom.  XII. 

I:(58)- 
[Fleetwood,  William]  :    The  Life  and  Miracles  of  St.  Winifred,  etc.    London,  1713, 

8°. 

1:13. 
Fleury,  Claude  .-\l)l)e :     Histoire  Ecclcsiastique  depuis  le  commencement  dii  Chris- 
tianisme,  jusqu'en    1401  .  .  36  voll.  many  editions.  c 

I:  (78). 
Flodoardus  of  Rheims :     Chronicon  ab  anno  919  ab  966  ex  bibliotlicca   P.   Pithiei. 
Paris,  1588,  8°.  c 

I:(i9). 
Fontanini,  Gjiisto:     Delia  eloquenza  Italiana,  libri  due,  Roma,  1726,  4°.     other  edi- 
tions, c 
111:407. 

:     Vindiciae   Antiquorum   Diplomatum   adversus    Bartli.   Germonii, 

Rom.  1705,  4°.  b 

I:(ii9)- 
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198  THOMAS   WARTON  [198 

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213]  SOURCES  OF  THE  HISTORY  OP  POETRY  213 

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Witte.  Henningus :     Diarium  Biographicum,  Gedani.  1688,  4°. 

Ill  :Ixxxvi. 
Wolf,  John  Christopher:     Bibliotheca,  Hebrae,  sive   Notitia,  etc.  4  voll.  Hamb.  et 
Lips.  1715-33.  b 

1:131  emend;  II  :33.39. 


232  THOMAS   WARTON  [232 

:    Curae  Philologicae  et  Criticae,  etc.  in  Xovuin  Tcstamentum,  Basil, 

1741. 

II 1306. 
Wood.  Anthony  a:     Athense  Oxonienses,  an  exact  History  of  all  the  Writers  and 
Bishops  who  have  had  their  Education  in  .  .  Oxford,  etc.  to  which  are  added 
Fasti  .  .  London,  1721,  fol.  a 

11:402,382,383,387,434; 

III  :3,  7,  28,  43,  45,  58.  61,  71,  73,  84,  86,  87,  96,  167,  187,  206,  210,  213,  216,  281, 
283,  284,  286,  287,  291,  313,  317,  320,  354,  389,  425,  437,  442,  448,  466. 

:     Historia   et  antiquitates   universitatis   Oxoniensis,   etc.    2   voll. 

Oxen.  1674,  fol.  b 

I  :(82.83,ic8,ii4,ii6,i32,i33,i47,i49)  ;   92,232,23.1,235,290,291,295,408,432; 

II  7,34,124,173,176,188,210,  337,  382,  422, 424, 425, 426,43,,, 44 1, 447,449.453,460 
III  :442. 

Wormius  Olaus:     Antiquitates  Danicse,   Literatura   Runica   etc.   Hafniie   1651.   fol. 
1 :24,27. 

:     Danica  Literatura  antiquissima,   vulgo  (jotliica   dicta,   luci   red- 

dita  opera  etc.  Hafnire  1636  4°. 

I:  (42,45,56,57- 
:     Danicorum  monumentoruni  libri  sex;  etc.  Hafniae,  1643.  c 


I:  (22,24,25). 

Warton  has  1634,  but  his  references  correspond  to  ed.  1643. 
Wotton,  William  :     Cyfreithjcn  Hywel  Dola  ac  eraill.  seu  Leges  Wallicse.  etc.  Lon- 
dini,  1730,  fol.  b 
I:  (49,50,51). 
:     A  Short  View  of  Hickes's  Thesaurus.  London,  1708.  8°. 

I:(3S). 
Wykes,  Thomas:    Chronicle,  in  Gale's  Historix  .Anglicanae  Scriptorcs  Quinque. 
TIT:  146. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

1     Editions  of  Warton's  Works. 

1746  Ode  to  a  Fountain.    Imitated  from  Horace,  Ode  XIII,  Book  III,  in  Odes  on 

Various  subjects  by  Joseph  Warton  .  .  London,  1746,  4°. 

1747  The  Pleasures  of  Melancholy.    A  Poem.    London,  1747.    4°.  24  pp. 

1749  The  Triumph  of  Isis,  a  poem.     [1749]  4°. 

Second  edition,  corrected.     1750.     4°. 

Third  edition,  1750.   4°. 

Reprinted  in   A  Collection  of   Poems  by  Several  Hands,  vol.   I,  p.   194, 

London,  1768,  8°. 

1750  A  Description  of  the  city,  college  and  cathedra!  of  Winchester  .  .  .    The 

whole  illustrated  with  .  .  particulars,  collected  from  a  manuscript  of  A. 

Wood,  etc.    London  [1750],  12°. 

another  edition,  1760. 

The  Winchester  guide ;  or  a  description  of  the  antiquities  and  curiosities 

of  that  ancient  city.     [Anon]  Winton,  1796,  8°. 
T.    Warton's    Notes,    and    corrections    to    his    History    of    Winchester 

College,  and  Cathedral  printed  in  1750  etc.     Privately  printed  from 

his  own  private  copy  in  the  possession  of  Sir  Thomas  Phillips,  Bart. 

Middle  Hill,   [1857.?]    fol. 

another  edition,  [1857?]  8°. 

1751  Newmarket,  a  Satire.    London,  1751,  4°. 

Ode  for  Music  as  performed  at  the  theatre  in  Oxford  on  the  second  of 
July,  1751,  being  the  anniversary  .  .  for  the  Commemoration  of  the  bene- 
factions to  the  University.    Oxford,  [1751]  4°. 

1/53    The   Union :   or   Select   Scots   &   English   Poems.     [Edited   by   T.   Warton] 
Edinburgh,   1753.     8°. 
Second  edition,     London,  1759,  8°. 
New  edition,  Oxford,  1796,  8°. 

1754    Observations  on  the  Faerie  Queene  of  Spenser.    London,  1754.  8°. 

Second  edition,  corrected  and  enlarged.   2  vols.   London,  1762,  8°. 
A  new  edition.    2  vols.    London,  1807.    8°. 

1758    Inscriptionum    Romanarum    Metricarum    Delectus    [Edited    by    T.    Warton] 
London,  1758. 

1760  Mons  Catharine  prope  Wintoniam  :  poema.    London,  1760,  4°. 

ed.  bettia.     Oxon.  1774,  4°. 
A    Companion    to    the    Guide    and    Guide    to    the    Companion,  etc.     London 
[1760?]. 

Second  edition,  corrected  and  enlarged.     London,    [1762?].    8°. 
Fourth  edition,  n.  d. 

I  have  not  been  able  to  find  a  copy  of  this  edition  which  Edward 
Jones  says  he  purchased  at  Oxford  in  1765.     See  Nichols :    Lit 
Illus.  VIII,  p.  396. 
Another  ed.  by  Cooke,  Oxford,  1806.     12°. 

1761  The  Life  and  Literary  Remains  of  Ralph  Bathurst,  M.  D.  Dean  of  Wells,  and 

President  of  Trinity  College  in  Oxford.     2  vols.    London,  1761,  8°. 

233 


234  THOM.VS  WARTON  [234 

1764  Tlie  Oxford  Sausage;  or  Select  Poetical  Pieces  written  by  the  most  cele- 
brated Wits  of  the  University  of  Oxford.  [Edited  by  T.  Warton] 
London,  1764,  8°. 

Another  edition,  London,  1772,  8°. 
Another  edition,  London,  1814,  8°. 

A  new  edition,  with  cuts  .  .  by  Thomas  Bewick,  London,  1815,  12°. 
Another  edition,  Oxford,  1821,  8°. 
Another  edition,  London,  1822,  8°. 
1766    Anthologize   Grwcje  a  Constantino   Cephala  condits   libri   tres,  ad  editionem 
Lipsienseni  J.  J.  Reiske  ex  pressi.     Accedunt  intcrpretatio  Latina,  poeta- 
rum  anthologicorum  notitia,  indices  necessarii.     [Edited  by  T.   Warton] 
Oxonii,  1766,  8°. 
1770    Theocriti  Syracusii  quse  supersunt.    Cum  scholiis  Graecis  auctioriUus,  emenda- 
tionibus  ct  animadvcrsionibus  in  scholia  Editoris  et  Joannis  Toupii  .  . 
Prjemittuntur   Editoris    Dissertatio   de    B'ucolicis   Graecorum   .    .    Oxonii, 
1770,  2  vol.  4°. 
1772    The  Life  of  sir  Tho.   Pope,   founder  of   Trinity  College,  Oxford.     Chiefly 
compiled   from  original  evidences.     With   an   appendix  of  papers,   never 
before  printed.     London,  1772,  8°. 

Second  edition,  corrected  and  enlarged.  London,  1780,  8°. 
1774  The  History  of  English  Poetry  from  the  close  of  the  Eleventh  Century  to 
the  Commencement  of  the  Eighteenth  Century,  to  which  are  prefixed 
Two  Dissertations:  i.  On  the  Origin  of  Romantic  Fiction  in  Europe; 
2.  On  the  Introduction  of  Learning  Into  England.  3  vols.  London,  1774. 
'""8.  1781.  4°.  Vol.  Ill  contains  an  additional  dissertation  on  the  Gesta 
Romanorum. 

88  pages  of  a  fourth  volume  were  printed  in  1789. 
Second  edition  of  volume  I,  London,  1775,  4°. 
New  edition  carefully  revised,  with  .  .  .  notes  .  .  .by  Mr.  Ritson.  .  .  .  Dr. 

Ashby,   Mr.   Douce,   Mr.    Park   and  other   eminent   antiquaries,   and 

by  the  editor.     [R.  Price]  4  vols.  London,  1824,  8°. 
Another  edition,  from  the  edition  of  1824,  superintended  by  .  .  .  R.  Price, 

including  notes  of  Mr.  Ritson,  Dr.  Ashby,  Mr.  Douce,  and  Mr.  Park. 

Now  further  improved  by  the  corrections  and  additions  of  several 

eminent  antiquaries.     [Edited  by  R.  Taylor]  3  vols.  London,  1840,  8°. 
A  full  reprint — text  and  notes — of  edition  London  1778-81.   London,  1870, 

8°.     [One  of  Murray's  Reprints]. 
Another  issue  with  a  new  title  page,  London,  [1872].   8°. 
Another  edition  with   a   preface  by   Richard   Price,   and  notes  variorum 

edited  by  W.  C.  Hazlitt.     4  vols,  London,  1871,  8°. 
Another  edition,  a  full  reprint  .  .  of  ed.  London,  1778  and  1781.   London. 

[1875].    8°.     [Part  of  the  World  Library  of  Standard  Books]. 
[Fillingham,  William]  :     An  Index  to  the  History  of  English  Poetry  by 

Thomas  Warton,  D.D.  etc.  London,  1806,  4°. 

Uniform  with  the  history,  with  a  separate  index  for  each  volume,  the 

fragment  of  vol.  IV,  and  the  dissertations. 


235]  BIBLIOGRAPHY  235 

1/77     Poems.     A   New  Edition,   with  Additions.     By  Thomas  Warton.     London, 

1777,  8°.     1-83  pp. 

Poems,  by  Thomas  Warton.  The  Third  Edition,  corrected,  London, 
i7"9,  8°.     1-97  pp. 

Advertisement.  These  Poems  were  collected  and  published  together 
in  1777.  Some  of  them  had  before  been  separately  printed,  to  which 
other  unprinted  Pieces  were  then  added.  This  is  the  third  and  re- 
vised Edition  of  that  collection,  with  the  .\ddition  of  one  Piece  more. 
The  Triumph  of  Isis  is  the  addition. 

Poems  by  Thomas  Warton,  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  O.xford.  The 
fourth  edition,  corrected  and  enlarged.  London,  1789.  8°.  1-292  pp. 
The  only  copy  of  this  edition  that  I  know  of  is  in  Yale  Univer- 
sity Library.  In  this  copy  pp.  [iii]  iv  are  omitted;  there  are 
two  leaves  numbered  [v]-vi,  of  which  one  was  evidently  inserted 
from  another  edition. 

The  Poems  on  Various  Subjects  of  Thomas  Warton,  B.D.  Late  Fellow 
of  Trinity  College,  Professor  of  Poetry,  and  Camden  Professor  of 
History,  at  Oxford,  and  Poet  Laureate.  Now  first  collected.  Lon- 
don, 1791,  8°. 

Poetical  Works  .  .  in  The  Works  of  the  British  Poets,  with  Prefaces, 
Biographical  and  Critical.  By  Robert  Anderson.  Edinburgh,  1793, 
etc.  vol  II,  1795,  pp.  1061-1102. 

The  Poetical  Works  of  the  late  Thomas  Warton,  B.D.  Fellow  of  Trinity 
College,  Oxford;  and  Poet  Laureate.  Fifth  edition,  corrected  and 
enlarged.  To  which  are  added  Inscriptionum  Romanarum  delectus, 
and  an  inaugural  speech  as  Camden  Professor  of  History,  never  be- 
fore published  .  .  Together  with  Memoirs  of  his  Life  and  Writings ; 
and  notes,  critical  and  explantory.  By  Richard  Mant  .  .  2  vols.  Ox- 
ford, 1802.   8°. 

Poetical  Works  .  .  collated  with  the  best  editions  by  Thomas  Park.  In 
Works  of  the  British  Poets,  etc.  vol.  39,  London,  1805,  8°. 

Another  edition  of  the  same,  1808. 

Additions  to  the  poems  of  T.  W.  in  the  same.  vol.  6,  1808.     16°. 

Selections  in  The  Cabinet  of  Poetry,  edited  by  S.  J.  Pratt,  vol.  6.  1808, 
12°. 

Poems  in  A.  Chalmers.  The  Works  of  the  English  Poets  from  Chaucer 
to  Cowper ;  etc.  21  vols.  London,  1810,  vol.  18. 

Selections  in  T.  Campbell:  Specimens  of  the  British  Poets;  with  Bio- 
graphical and  Critical  Notices,  etc.  7  vols.  London,  1819,  8°  vol.  7. 

Selections  in  E.  Sanford:  The  Works  of  the  British  Poets,  vol.  34,  1819, 
12°. 

Select  Poems  in  The  British  Poets  [edited  by  S.  W.  Singer  and  others] 
100  vols.    Chiswick,  1822,  12°.    vol.  68. 

Selections  in  The  Cabinet  of  British  Poetry,  etc.,  1830,  12°. 

The  Poetical  Works  of  Goldsmith,  Collins  and  T.  Warton.  With  Lives, 
Critical  Dissertations,  and  Explanatory  Notes,  by  tlie  Rev.  George 
Gilfillan.    Edinburgh,  1854,  8°.   pp.  I5S-303- 


236  THOMAS   WARTOX  [236 

Another  edition,  tlic  text  edited  bv  Charles  Cowden  Clarke.  London, 
['874I. 

The  Poetical  Works  of  T.  Gray,  T.  Parnell,  W.  Collins,  M.  Green,  and 
T.  Warton.  Ed.  by  R.  A.  Wilmott  .  .  Illustrated  by  Birket  Foster  & 
E.  Corbould.  in  Routlcdge's  British  Poets,  29  vols.  London,  1853- 
58,  8'. 

Another  edition,   [1883]. 

Selections  in  T.  H.  Ward:  The  English  Poets  .  .  4  vol.  New  York.  1907, 
vol.  3. 

Tlie  Hamlet;  an  ode  written  in  Whichwood  Forest  .  .  Illustrated  with 
14  etchings  by  Birket  Foster.    London,  1859,  4°. 

.Another  edition,  1876,  4°. 
1782    Specimen  of  a  History  of  O.xfordshire.    [Being  and  account  of  Kiddington] 

20  copies  privately  printed.     1782,  4°. 

The  second  edition,  corrected  and  enlarged,  London,  1783,  4°. 

Third  edition.  The  History  and  Antiquities  of  Kiddington ;  first  pub- 
lished as  a  Specimen  of  a  History  of  Oxfordshire.  London,  1815,  4°. 
Verses  on  Sir  J.  Reynold's  Painted  Window  at  New  College,  etc.  Lon- 
don, [1782].  4°.  1-8  pp. 
An  Enquiry  into  the  authenticity  of  the  Poems  attributed  to  T.  Rowley, 
in  which  the  arguments  of  the  Dean  of  Exeter  and  Mr.  Bryant  are 
examined.    London,  1782. 

Second  edition,  corrected,  [with  author's  name]  1782. 
1785    Milton's  Poems  upon  Several  Occasions,  English,  Italian  and  Latin  .  .  .  with 

notes  critical,  explanatory  and  other  illustration  by  Thomas  Warton  .  . 

London,  1785,  8°. 

Second  edition,  London,  1791.   8°. 

Comus,  a  mask  :  .  .  to  which  are  added  .  .  .  Mr.  Warton's  account  of  the 
origin  of  Comus.     London,  1799,  8°. 

The  Poetical  Works  of  John  Milton,  with  notes  of  various  authors,  prin-  „ 

cipally  from  the  editions  of  T.   Newton   .  .  T.  Warton,  etc.  by  E.  J 

Hawkins.     4  vols.  London,   1824,  8°.  Tj 

Hall,  John:   Satires  .  .  with  illustrations  of  .  .  T.  Warton,  etc.   [Part  of  a  |^ 

series  called  'Early  English  Poets,'  ed.  by  S.  W.  Singer,  Chiswick,  1824]. 
Spenser's   Works,   with   Remarks   on   the   Plan   and   Conduct   of   the   Faerie 

Queene.     Remarks  on  Spenser's  Imitation  from  old  romances.     Remarks  i. 

on  Spenser's  allegorical  character.     Remarks  on   Spenser's  stanza,  versi-  r 

fication  and  language,     [by  T.  Warton],  vol.  2.    1805,  8°.  » 

Spenser,   Edmund :     The   Fairie    Queen ;    the    Shepheard's    Calendar ;    etc.  * 

[with  copious  MS.  notes  by  Thos.  Warton]  161 7,  4°. 
Contributions  to 

Dodsley's  Museum,  March  1746-  Sept.  1747. 

The  Student,  or  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Monthly  Miscellany,  2  vol. 
Oxford,  1750-1,  8°. 

Johnson's  Idler,  Nos.  33,  93,  96. 

Life  of  Sir  Thomas  Pope,  in  Biographia  Britannica,  vol.  V.    1760.   4°. 


I 


237]  BIBLIOGRAPHY  237 

Epicedia  Oxoniensia  in  obitum  Frederici,  principis  Walliae,  Oxon.  1751, 
fol. 

Pietas  Universitatis  Oxoniensis,  in  Obitum  Serenissimi  Regis  Georgii  II, 
et  Gratulatio  in  Augnstissimi  Regis  Georgii  III.  Inaugurationem, 
Oxon,  1761,  fol. 

Epithalamia  Oxoniensia ;  sive  gratulationes  in  regis  Georgii  III  et  prin- 

cipissre  Sophis  Charlottae  nuptias,  Oxon.  1761,  fol. 

Gratulatio  solennis  univ.  Oxon.  ab  Georgium,  Wallije  principem,  natum. 
Oxon,  1762,  fol. 

Essays  on  Gothic  Architecture,  by  the  Rev.  T.  Warton,  Rev.  J.  Bentham, 
Captain  Grose,  and  the  Rev.  J.  Milner.  Illustrated  with  10  plates, 
etc.    London.  1800,  8°. 

Second  edition,  to  which  is  added,  a  list  of  the  Cathedrals  of  England, 
etc.    London.  1802,  8°. 

Third  edition.  London,  1808,  8°. 
II.     Biographical  and  Critical  Works. 

[Huggins,  W.  ?]  :  The  Observer  observ'd — Or  remarks  on  a  certain  cu- 
rious Tract,  intitled.  Observations  on  the  Faierie  Queene  of  Spen- 
cer, by  Thos.  Warton,  A.M.,  London,  1756,  8°. 

Mason,  William :  Mirth,  a  poem  in  answer  to  Warton's  Pleasures  of 
Melancholy,  etc.    London,  1774,  4°. 

[Dampier,  H.  ?  or  Woodward.  Dr.  of  Bath?]  :  Remarks  upon  the  eighth 
section  of  the  second  volume  of  IMr.  Warton's  History  of  English 
Poetry,  London  [1779],  8°. 

Greene,  Edward  Burnaby:  Strictures  upon  a  Pamphlet  entitled  'Cur- 
sory observations  on  the  poems  attributed  to  Rowley'  .  .  .  with  a 
postscript  on  Mr.  Thomas  Warton's  enquiry  into  the  same  subject. 
London,  1782,  8°. 

[Anon]  :  An  Examination  of  the  Poems  attributed  to  Thos.  Rowley  and 
William  Canynge,  With  a  defense  of  the  opinion  of  Mr.  Warton. 
Sherborne   [1782?],  8°. 

[Ritson,  Joseph]  :  Observations  on  the  three  first  volumes  of  the  history 
of  English  Poetry  in  a  letter  to  the  author.    London,  1782,  4°. 

[Darby,  S  ?]  :  A  letter  to  .  .  Thos.  Warton  on  his  late  edition  of  Mil- 
ton's Juvenile  Poems.     London,  1785,  8°. 

[.Amhurst,  Nicholas]  :  Terrae  Filius ;  or  the  secret  history  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Oxford  in  several  essays,  to  which  are  added  remarks, 
etc.     London,  1726. 

B'oswell,  James:  The  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  ed,  by  G.  B.  Hill,  6  vols. 
Oxford,   1887. 

Cory,  H.  E. :  The  Critics  of  Edmund  Spenser.  Univ.  of  California 
Publications  in  Modern  Philology.     Berkeley,  191 1. 

Foster,  Joseph:     Alumni  Oxoniensis,  1500-1714,  4  vols.  Oxford,  1891. 

^ ■ — :     Alumni  Oxoniensis.  1715-1886,  4  vols.  Oxford,  1891. 

Ker,  W.  P. :  Warton  Lecture  on  English  Poetry.  I.  Thomas  Warton. 
Proceedings  of  the  British  Academy,  1909-10,  London,  191 1. 


238  THOMAS  WARTON  [238 

Nichols,  John  :  Illustrations  of  Literary  History,  consisting  of  authentic 
Memoirs  and  Original  Letters  of  Eminent  Persons.  8  vols.  London, 
1817. 

:     Literary  Anecdotes  of  the  Eighteenth  Century.    9  vols. 

London,  1812. 

Payne,  Thomas:  A  Catalogue  of  Books  (being  the  libraries  of  Dr.  Jo- 
seph Warton,  Thomas  Warton  .  .  and  others)  to  be  sold  by  T.  P. 
London,  1801. 

Pope,  Alexander :  Works,  with  notes  and  ilhtstrations  l^y  Joseph  War- 
ton,  and  others,    g  vols.  London,  1797. 

Warton,  Joseph  :  An  Essay  on  the  Genius  and  Writings  of  Pope.  5th  ed. 
2  vols.    London,    1806. 

Wool!,  John  :  Biographical  Memoirs  of  the  late  Rev'd  Joseph  Warton, 
.  .  London,  1806. 

Cornhill  Magazine,  XI,  733-42.    Lee,  H.  B. :    Thomas  Warton. 

English  Historical  Review,  XI,  282  ff.  Blakiston,  H.  E.  D. :  Thomas  War- 
ton  and  Machyn's  Diary. 

Literary  Journal;  a  Review  of  Literature,  etc.  for  the  year  1803.  1,280, 
601  ff.     [.'\non.l.    Wartoniana. 

London  Magazine,  IV,  121  ff.  Continuation  of  Dr.  Johnson's  Lives  of 
the  Poets.    No.  1.    Thomas  Warton. 

St.  James  Evening  Post,  31  August,  1782.    Sonnet  to  Mr.  Warton. 

A  MS.  copy  is  in  Warton's  Life  of   Pope,  ed.   1772,  in  tlie  British 
Museum. 

Blackwood's  Magazine,  XXXVI,4lo. 

Critical  Review,  XI,i6i ;  XIII,27;  XXXIII,369;  XXXVII,275,340,435,473; 
XLIV.iog;  XLV,32i,4i7;  LI,32i ;  Ln,i5.io8;  LIII,98;  LV,78;  LIX, 
321,401,421:  LXX,i59;  2nd  Sen  X,20. 

Edinburgh  Review,  XXVII,7;  LVII,4i3. 

Gentleman's  Magazine,  XLIV,370,42S,466 ;  XLVIII,  201,225.269:  Ll.iSr, 
299,608:  LII,i29,i95,244.527,57i,574;  LIII,42,44.45,62,ioo,i26.28i,4i6; 
LV,267,290,374,457,si3;  LVI,64,2i!;  LX48o,648,649,ii98;  LXTI,i072; 
LXIII,4,n9,740;  LXVI,236;  LXXIII,396. 

Monthly  Review,  XXIV,i63,4o6;  LXIII, 1,81,230;  XLVI,54o;  L.266, 
418;  LI,4I9;  LVI,33i;  LIX,i32,2ii,32i;  LXI,8i,i62;  LXVII,i6i,3o6; 
LXVIII,398;  LXXIV,228;  LXXIX,4,97,3-12;  2nd  Ser.  X,24,i7i,l22, 
271,380. 

Quarterly  Review,  XXXI,l82S. 


INDEX 


Addison,  Joseph    38  41  4411  170 

Akenside,  Mark     25  4011 

Amhurst,  Nicholas     10 

Anglo-Saxon   literature     19  85    115 

Anthology    75 

Antiquities  of  Oxford   19 

Apollonius  Rhodius   37  60 

Ariosto,   Lodovico     38  44  45-6  47  48  49 

51  55 
Aristotle    52  164 
Aubrey,  John     19  158 

Bachelors'   Conimon-Room   Club    21-2 

Bag-Wig    and    Tobacco-Pipe,    The    34 

Bale,  John     122 

Ballads   49  59-6/ 

Bampfylde,  John  Codrington     140  14I 

Barclay,  Alexander    99  I00» 

Barreti  William    92 

Bathurst.  Life  of    19  71 

Beauclerk,  Topham     74 

Bennet.  John     141 »  161 

Benwell,  William     14IH 

Blakiston,  Herbert  E.  D.     20<i  71-3 

Boccaccio,  Giovanni     89 

Boileau-Despreaux,  Nicholas    43  46 

Bowie,  John     169 

Bowles,  William  Lisle     33'i  74   136  141 

142  143 
Burney,  Fanny     168 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey     39   50-1   82  86  87-91 
94  95  100  IQ4  114  125 

Assembly  of  Fowls    So 

Canterbury  Tales,  The    88  89 

House  of  Fame,  The    90 

Knighfs  Tale,  The    89  90 

Romance  of  Ike  Rose    50 

Squire's  Tale,  The     50  66 
Church,  Ralph     55 
Cinquantes  Balades    96  124 
Coleman,  George    75 
Coleridge,    Samuel   Taylor  33n   4511    141 

142 
Collins,  William    24  30  33n  (>7  ioi«  I7i 
Companion  to  the  Guide,  The     18  34  145 

173 
Com  us     155  157 
Confessio  Amantis    95 
Coxeter,  Thomas     19  123 

Dante  Alighieri     106-7  125 
Description  of  Winchester    37  144-5  I53 
Deserted  Village,  The    137 
Dodsley,  Robert    2511  32  158 
Douglas,  Gavin     100- 1   116 


Dryden,  John    38  441!  48)1  50  57)1  89  90 

114  I22n 
Dyer,  John    26 

Edwards,  Thomas    32 
Elegy  in  a  Country  Church-yard    27-8  30 
Epistle  from  Thomas  Hearne,  An    34 
Essay  on  Pope    57 

Faerie  Queene,  The     27  41  58  59.     See 

Observations. 
Farmer,  Richard     80  113  123 

Garrick,  David    62n  75  80  169 

Gentleman's  Magazine     Il8  156 

Gibbon,  Edward     15  118-9 

Goldsmith,  Oliver    9711  137 

Gorboduc     107 

Gothic  revival     20  24  27n  31  32  35  56-7 

131-5  138-9  141   142  151-3 
Gower,  John    95  124  125 

Confessio  Amantis    95 

Cinquantes  Balades    96  124 
'Grave-yard'  school    24  25  26 
Gray,  Thomas     II  15  24  27  28  35  68  79 
80  82  84  96n  98  ri4  128  130-1  171 

Hanover  Turnip,  The     10 

Harris,  James     75 

Hawes,  Stephen    99 

Hazlitt,  William     139  140  170 

Headley,  Henry     141  I42» 

Hearne,  Thomas     122 

Heine,  Heinrich     103 

Holinshed,  Raphael     122 

Hickes,  George     19  121 

History  of  English  Poetry,  The  19  119 
124  125  144  173  177  ff. ;  vol.  I,  79-91; 
vol.  n,  92-103;  vol.  ni,  i04-ill;vol. 
IV,  112 

Homer     37  44  52 

Household  Book  of  the  Earl  of  North- 
umberland, The  67-8 

Howard,  Henry,  Earl  of  Surrey  61-2  105 

125 
Huddesford,  George     28 
Hughes,  John    3911  41-2  44  51 
Hurd,  Richard  56-7  80  82 

Idler.  The     17  69 

//  Pcnseroso    25  27 

Inscription  Written  at  a  Hermitage,    127 

137 
Inscriptionum    Romanarum    Metncarum 

Delectus,    74  75  168 
Introduction   a   I'Histoire   dc   la   Danne- 

inarc     11 


239 


240 


THO.MAS    VV.VRTON 


.'40 


Isis:  an  Elegy    28 

Italian  literature     104-5  106  125 

Jelly-bag  Society,  The     173 
Johnson,   Dr.   Samuel     15«  22  35  46  51 
54  55"  56"  59  60  6870  80  96«  98  loi 

108  12;  137  139-140  169-170 
Jonson,  Ben     39  46  48  49  158 
Jortin,  John    42-3  So  75 

Journal  of  a  Senior  Fellow,  'ihc     17 

King's  Quair,  The    65  icon 

Langton,  Bennet    74 

Lee,  Catherine  11.     147 

Lee,  Henry  Boyle     151 

Leland,  John     122 

Letters  on  Chivalry  and  Romance     56 

Literary  Club,  The     168 

Lounsbiiry,  Thomas  R.    87 

Lowth,  Robert     19 

Lydgatc,  John    96  99  100  125 

Lyfe  of  Our  Lady    96 

Machyn's  Diary    71-2 

Malonc,   Edmund     35«   81  h   87»  98   157 

158-9  169 
Mant,  Richard    2S«  34  74  117 
Mason,  William     28  32  96)1  115  127H  171 
Mavor,  William     161 
Medixval  drama     51-2  86-7 
Michael     170 

Milton,  John  11  12  14  24  25  29  30  31 
32  34  39  48«  SO  53  57  "2  130  137  141 
154  167 

Warton's   edition     154-7 

Coiiius    155  157 

//  Penseroso     25  27 

Paradise  Lost    38  44*1 

Paradise  Regained     156 

Samson  Agonistes     156 
Mirror  for  Magistrates,  The    $2n  106-7 

109  no 

Monody,  Written  near  Stratford,  127  130 
Monthly  Review,  The    34  55  118 

Newmarket,  A  Satire    30 

Nigramansir    loi 

Nut-Browne  Maide,  The     108  115 


Observations,  Critical  and  Historical, 
Churches,  etc.     146-150  152 

Ohscn'ations  on  the  Faerie  Queene 
S/ycnser,  37-58  59  60  61  6311  68 
.79  84  86  I2S  144  146  152  173 

Observations  on  the  .  .  .  History 
English  Poetry     US 

Odes  on  I'arious  Subjects    25 


of 
70 

of 


Ode  to  Evening    30 
Odes,  Warton's — 

Approach  of  Summer,  The    30-3 

Crusade,  The    3^  127  131-2 

First  of  April,  The    135 

Grave   of  King   Arthur,   The     32   127 
131   132-3 

Hamlet,  The     135 

Morning,  The  Author  confined  to  Col- 
lege   29 

Music,  for    30  70 

Sent  to  Mr.  Upton    130 

Sleep,  to     138 

Solitude,  at  an  Inn,  to     137 

Suicide,  The     138 

To  a  Griszle  Wig    20n 

Written  at  Vale-Royal  Abbey    130-1 
On  Leander's  Siviinming  over  the  Hel- 
lespont to  Hero    13 
Orlando  Furioso    Si 
Oxford,  the  University  of     15-23  166 
Oxford  Newsman's  Verses,  The    2ln  34 
Oxford  Sausage,  The    33  34  129  I73 

Panegyric  on  Oxford  Ale    18  21    29  166 

Paradise  Lost    38  44 

Paradise  Regained    156 

Parnell,  Thomas    26 

Pastoral  in  the  Manner  of  Spenser    30 

Percy,  Thomas    1 1  59-68  7Sn  80  81  82  92 

112  116  117  123  170 
Peter  Pindar,  i.e.  Wolcott,  John     134-5 
Phaeton  and  the  One-Horse  Chair,  The 

Philander,  an  Imitation  of  Spenser     II 
Phillips,  John     18  29 
Pleasures  of  Imagination    25 
Pleasures  of  Melancholy,^  The    25-28  153 
Poems  on  Several  Occasions    12 
Pope,  Alexander     10  27  30  35  39  40»  46 

47«  50  57  S8  79  82  84  88  90  114  130 
Pope,  Sir  Thomas     19  71-3 
Price,  John    80  92  123  147  148  162  169 
Prince,  Daniel     28  ill  146  162  173 
Prior,  Matthew     39*1  40  55  108  115 
Progress  of  Discontent,  The  16  29  166 
Prologue  to  May    loo-i   116 
Pseudo-classical  poetry     24  25  28  29; 

criticism     38  41 

Puritans      165.     See    also    reformation 

poetry. 

Rape  of  the  Lock,  The    27 

Reformation  poetry    109 

Rcliques  of  Ancient  English  Poetry    59- 

68  80 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua     128  139  167 
fxichardson,  Elizabeth     11   12 
Richardson,  Joseph     11 


I 


.•^' 


241] 


INDEX 


241 


Ritson.  Joseph     10211  112  115-7  1-24 
Romances    48-50  53  56  85  86  108  125  170 
Rousseau,  Jean-Jaques     103 
Rowley-Chatterton  controversy     73  92-3 

96-7  113  126 
Ruins  of  Rome    26 
Russell,  Thomas     140  141 
Rymer,  Thomas    38 

Sackville,  Thomas     S2n  106-7  lOO  125 
Samson  Agonistes     156 
Scaliger,  J.  C.    52  53 
Schoolmistress,  The     40n  41 
Scotch  literature     loo-i  125 
Scott,  John,  Lord  Eldon  74 
Scott,  Sir  Walter    119  142-3  153 
Shakespeare,  William     39  47  57  69  108 

no  157  158 
Shenstone,  William    40  75  168 
Shepherd's  Calendar,  The    30 
Shepherd's  Week,  The    170 
Ship  of  Fools,  The    99 
Skelton,  John     loi 
Smart,  Christopher     34 
Sonnet  to  the  River  Itchin    142 
Sonnet  to  the  River  Otter    142 
Sonnet,    Italian      105 ;    revival    of      32-3 
143;   Warton's     133-4  136-7  142  143 

on  Bathing    33 

on  King  Arthur's  Round  Table     130 

To  Mr.  Gray    130 

To  the  River  Lodon    136  142 

Written  after  seeing  Wilton  House  137 

Written  at  Winslade    33 

JVritten  in  a  Blank  Leaf  of  Dugdale's 
Monasticon     133-4  I39 
Southey,  Robert     128  140 
Spanish  literature    67 
Specimen  of  a  Parochial  History  of  Ox- 
fordshire   145-6 
Spectator.  The    38m  41  62 
Spenser,  Edmund     11   12  24  26  27  30  31 
z:i  37-58  59  60  73  82  84  106  107  112 
115  125  127  158 
Splendid.  Shilling.  The    29 
Steele,  Richard     38  41  170 
Steevens,  George    112  113  157 
Stillingfleet,  Edvifard     32 
Student,  or  the  etc.    28 
Swift,  Jonathan     29  130 
Tanner,  Thomas     123 
Task,  The    137 
Temple,  Sir  William     11 
Terra-Filius    10 

Theocritus    30  74  75-7  80  81  138  160 
Thomson,  James     26  40  41   130 
Toup,  Jonathan     76-7  169 
Triumph  of  I  sis.  The    20  28  127  153  166 


Tyrwhitt,   Thomas     87  92  9S>i  97*1  98-9 

123  125 
Union,  The    30  33 
Upton,  John     49n  51  55  130 

Venus  and  Adonis    81  158 

Verses  on  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds's  Painted 

Windozv     128  139 
Villiers,   George,   Duke   of   Buckingham 

60 

Walpole,  Horace    55  96-7  114-5  118  152- 
3  168 

Warburton,  William     54  76  77 

Warton,  Anthony    g  176 

,  Francis    9  176 

,  Jane    12  2S»  147  176 

,  John     147  157 

,  Joseph     II    12   13   25  27n 

29"  34  35   56/1   57  62H   74n   S^n   III 
I4ln  147  148  149  157  167  172  176 

,  Michael    9  176 

Thomas,  the  elder     10  11 


12  13  30  176 

Warton,  Thomas,  the  younger;  see 
also  titles  of  separate  works. 

academic  career  22  28  59  70-1  73-4 
77-8  166  173 

antiquarian  tours     148-151 

birth     12 

classical  influence  on  13  25  37  52  124 
138 

clergyman,  career  as     159-162  165 

comparative  method,  use  of    43  58  85 

125 
criticism  of     54-5  71-3  87  112-3  114-121 

127  155-6 
death     162 
education     12-23 

friends     68-70   80   141    157-9   167-172; 
see   also   Collins,  Johnson,  Malone, 
Percy,  Price,  Wise,  etc. 
historical  method,  use  of     43  47-8  54 

58  88-9  109  124-5 
humorous  works    29  30  33-4  129  145 
laureateship     128  129  134-5 
nature,  interest  in     24  26  135-7 
personal  appearance     167 
poetry     24-36  127-143 
romantic  criticism     44-5  58  lOO-i 
West,  Richard     15 

Wilson,  John   (Christopher  North)     24 
Wise,  Francis    19  68-9  71  y:^  80  169 
Wood,  Anthony  a     19  63n  122  123  158 
Wordsworth,  William     100  14OH  141   142 

143 
Wyatt,  Thomas     105 
Young,  Edward     26  130 


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